Thanks for nothing, I thought before I realized he wouldn’t hear me. In a lame, but desperate, attempt to remove myself from the situation, I gently detached her hand and moved on, adding my signature to the next guy’s CD. I took my time, posing for a picture with him that Neon snapped on his phone, as well. Despite her deafening silence, I could feel Crystal ‘s eyes on me like lasers burning a hole in the back of my head. I did my best to ignore her, aside from a few sidelong glances to make sure that she wasn’t trying to eat one of my friends. I took my time with the rest of the fans, all the while trying to decide what to do about her in the back of my mind. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t really do anything except finish out the meet and greet, and let her be escorted out of the backstage area with the rest of the fans. I was even starting to believe that it might work when Aurora walked in the room, and the bottom dropped out.
“What is she doing here?” Crystal demanded, her voice dripping with disdain.
Aurora was a step ahead of the situation and had clearly already identified the girl as a vampire. She’s good like that. She managed to greet the fans who were waving excitedly to her, while simultaneously sending a mental question to me. Are we going to have a problem? She got her answer before I could send back a silent reply.
“He’s mine,” Crystal said forcefully, taking a step toward Aurora.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” Aurora said, her face calm and serene. “Maybe we should go for a walk, get to know each other?”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Crystal said vehemently. “Trey only thinks he loves you because you brought him into the night, but I’ve been here all along … waiting for our fates to intertwine.”
I held my hands up and slowly approached them both, not wanting to make the situation worse. Neon was about to come forward, but I shook my head at him, and he stopped in his tracks, watching me.
“Actually, I should be the one to take you for a walk,” I said to Crystal, offering her my arm. “Why don’t we go this way?”
Aurora’s eyes met mine while Crystal considered me. For a moment, I thought she was actually going to agree to leave the room with me. I’d figure out what to do next after I got her out in the hall, away from the guys and the innocent fans. In the end, she looped her arm in mine, but planted her feet.
“There’s no reason to drag this out,” she said to me. “You should just tell her right now that it’s over.” She glared at Aurora, but I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted from me. True, I needed to placate her to the point of getting her out of the room, but I had ten fans, a couple of radio deejays, and my band mates staring at me expectantly. “Fine,” Crystal said in an exasperated tone. “If you won’t tell her, I will.” She straightened and looked Aurora in the eye. “Now that Trey is a vampire, he belongs with me,” she said flatly.
I didn’t have to fake the surprise in my expression as I stared at her. She was trying to out me to everyone in the room. Scratch that, she had just outed me. O’Shea stared at me, his mouth gaping in what was surely a combination of amusement and surprise. His hand had frozen, causing the Sharpie he was holding to bleed on the T-shirt he’d been signing before the outburst.
Aurora was the first to recover. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Crystal said. “I’ve been waiting for this day since the first time I saw him.” She turned to look at me, and I really wished I hadn’t offered her my arm to begin with. I wasn’t convinced she was ever going to let it go. “You were breathtaking.” She reached up to touch my hair, which was more than creepy. “Even as a human,” she added, before turning back to Aurora. “I’d have turned him myself back then, but he’s surprisingly hard to get close to.”
“Is this a joke?” Chase asked, his voice slicing through the tension in the room. “This has to be the part where Ashton Kutcher comes in from another room.” He turned to Jonas and said, “Where do you think the cameras are?”
Jonas shrugged, but started to scan the room for potentially hidden cameras. Neon took the opportunity to step back out of the room in a hurry, and I wondered what his plan was. Mine certainly wasn’t working out. No one else in the room said a word. They were all fascinated, like they were witnessing a really horrific car crash and just couldn’t bear to look away, or risk disrupting the action.
“That ring on your finger doesn’t mean anything in our world,” Crystal added, gesturing with a nod to Aurora’s hand. “I promised myself years ago that I’d have him, no matter what it takes.” She tugged on my arm. “Come on,” she said. “I taste even better than I look.”
I managed a confused shrug in response for all the clueless people in the room, but Crystal was adamant. This was my chance to get her away from everyone else. I had to take it.
“How about I show you around?” I offered, leading her toward the hall. She walked with me without hesitation, her arm still linked in mine. Aurora turned to watch us leave, and I could tell that it was killing her to stay behind, but neither of us could react to the situation any more than we would if Crystal were an obsessive human fan. Someone had to stay behind and make all the necessary sarcastic remarks a situation like this calls for. Once in the hallway, I made a quick decision. “You know I have a show to do tonight,” I said to her. “I can’t very well just leave right now and disappoint all the fans who are counting on me.” She chewed her bottom lip, considering me. “Where are your seats tonight?”
“Clear up in the balcony,” she said, exasperated.
“I’ll have your seat upgraded so you have a better view of the show, then maybe we can talk later. Okay?” It was risky. There was a good chance she was going to explode on me right there, but I could tell how much it meant to her to see the show. Apparently I’d made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. “Okay,” she said, her steps coming to a stop as she turned to face me. “That might work.” I saw Neon approaching from behind her with two members of the venue’s security team. They were big guys. Maybe not take-down-a-vampire big, but big. I held up a hand to let Neon know that I was making progress. “Will you make sure Crystal’s seat is upgraded?” I said to him.
He looked at me in confusion at first, but then recovered in time to play along. “Sure. Absolutely,” he said, smiling at her. “If you’ll just come this way we’ll get everything sorted out.”
Crystal reluctantly let go of my arm and went with Neon, the security detail following them back down the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to see Aurora coming out into the hallway. She took one look and me and visibly relaxed.
“That was close,” she said, coming to stand by me.
“Too close,” I agreed.
Chapter 17
Aurora
I’D BEEN DREADING THE Rolling Stone interview all week. Trey insisted that talking about our personal lives to a complete stranger, who was going to print every word for the world to read, wasn’t really a big deal. I wasn’t buying it. In fact, I couldn’t imagine for the life of me why I’d ever felt like any of this was a good idea. Then I remembered, I’d just gotten back from Florida when Neon had approached us with the idea. I’d been missing Trey like crazy. I was going to have to learn to keep my head, or I might just end up agreeing to do a reality show for MTV. There were probably worse things that could happen, but I couldn’t think of any. As usual, Trey was right. Mostly. I’d been nervous when we’d met the interviewer, but he had been kind enough to come to us.
Trey and I ended up hanging out on the stage area after soundcheck to answer the Rolling Stone interviewer’s questions. I felt surprisingly comfortable in that setting. The whole scene was definitely starting to feel like home, strange as that was to admit. Trey made things easy, which is what Trey always does. He sat with a guitar cradled on his lap, randomly picking a melody as we talked. The interview was half over before I realized that he was doing it for my sake. He’d known exactly what to do to put me at ease, and it had worked. The magazine was interested in our story, from the
beginning. I talked about my first impressions of Trey, or at least the part that I could share. Some of the details of my side of the story were new to Trey, and he laughed out loud when I mentioned that I had labeled him simply ‘Guitar Guy’ in my head before he had come over to introduce himself. Trey shared that I’d saved him from a group of over-eager fans who were hoping to get some partying in with their favorite local celebrity. We spoke about how I’d managed to get a job doing the band’s album art, and how that made it easy for Trey and I to spend time together. We reminisced about the hours we spent at The Waking Moon where Trey wrote most of the new songs, and I painted away.
The interviewer seemed totally enthralled by our story, and I hoped that meant the article would at least entertain the readers. He asked some hard questions, too, like what had happened that caused us to crash and total Trey’s car. Luckily, Trey and I had given our agreed upon answers to those questions enough at this point that we sailed right through the story smoothly. Trey avoided further questions about the actual crash by mentioning how grateful we both were for the fans and their outpouring of love and support while he was in the hospital. We also spent a good portion of the interview discussing the details behind our impromptu wedding. Trey explained what had gone into pulling off a surprise wedding, and the nerves he’d faced down when it had come time to propose to me, and then ask me to tie the knot right then and there. I couldn’t stop grinning as I shared my memories of that day. It had been the perfect fairy tale wedding, without any of the stress and headaches that usually come with getting married. Of course, we had to discuss what life had been like since the wedding. We talked about what it was like to be touring as newlyweds, and joked about how having our own bus back was a priority.
The entire interview only took about an hour and a half, but it’s amazing how much life you can cram into ninety minutes when you’re asked. When we finished, Trey invited the interviewer to come back into the lounge and meet the rest of the guys and have something to eat with us. He would be staying for the show, as well, so Trey wanted to make sure he was fed and taken care of. He witnessed one of Catalyst’s infamous ping-pong matches, and eventually joined in on one at Chase’s insistence. I hoped the interviewer had been expecting the full Catalyst experience when he’d arrived tonight, because he was definitely getting it.
After Ping-pong, Jonas was eating a plate of the pasta that the venue had had delivered from a local restaurant. I figured tomorrow was a great time to have another sketching/painting lesson, so I asked Jonas if he’d make the announcement on Twitter. He whipped out his phone and played with it for a minute before saying, “Consider it done.”
“You’re the best,” I told him. I still had some time before the show was going to start, so I told Trey that I was going to sneak out and grab a bite of something real to eat. Trey grinned at me and wished me luck, which probably sounded a little strange to Jonas, who almost certainly believed that I wasn’t a big pasta fan now, which wasn’t true, but noodles and sauce just weren’t going to cut it for me tonight.
I began walking, heading away from the venue.
I’d only been walking about fifteen minutes when I saw my target. She was in her early thirties and just locking up shop at a business she either worked at, or owned. I smiled as I approached her, and she smiled back, giving a friendly little wave while she fought with the lock on her door. I was reminded of the stubborn lock in the back door of The Waking Moon.
“Excuse me,” I said to her. “You wouldn’t happen to have a phone I could use, do you?”
“Yes,” she said, sounding a bit exasperated. “If you hadn’t just asked me, I would have forgotten that I left it inside. Come on in.”
“Thanks,” I told her. “I hope it’s not too much trouble.”
“This door didn’t want to lock, anyway,” she insisted as she led the way inside. I glanced around quickly as I followed her in, noting that the windows were covered, making for good privacy. I closed the door behind me and caught her by surprise when she picked up her cell phone from a small stand across the room and turned to hand it to me. I had my fangs in her neck, piercing the skin gently, before she could react. I held her up, steadying her with one hand and taking the phone from her with the other. Her blood warmed me up from the inside, renewing my senses and my mind in a way that nothing else can. I didn’t take more than I needed, and I healed the bite wounds when I had finished. I projected into her mind a vision of me making a phone call and then I held her phone out to her.
“Thanks again,” I said to her. “My cell died an hour ago.”
“No problem,” she said, regaining her senses. I walked back to the door with her and when she fumbled with the key in the lock again, I gestured for her to let me give it a try.
“I have a stubborn lock like this at home,” I said as I wiggled the key until it turned freely. “There you go. That should do it.” I slid the key from the lock and handed it back to her.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Have a great night,” I told her with a smile, walking away. I went to the corner of the next block over and waited in the shadows until she had gotten in her car and drove away. Then I started back up the street in the direction of the venue again. The cool air made me feel even more alive now than it had moments ago before I’d fed. As far as fresh blood, I’d be set for the rest of the week now. I just had to find a way to get Trey and I a bag, or bottle of blood, to tide us over every day until we got our bus, and our way of keeping a blood stash back. I hoped that would be sooner rather than later.
Chapter 18
Trey
I HADN’T BEEN ON stage for all of five minutes when I felt the little buzz of power vibrating in the back of my skull. I was careful not to let it throw me off my game as I casually searched the crowd for the source. My first thought was that my vampire stalker was back, but she hadn’t generated a power buzz like this one. Aurora was backstage tonight – not like I’d mistake her power signature for anyone else’s – but it was clear that at least one vampire was standing in the crowd. When the song we were playing ended, I took my guitar off and walked back to the stand Chase and his drums were perched on. I grabbed a bottle of water and took a big drink, just to give myself some time to think. O’Shea started telling the crowd a story – leave it to him to fill in the silence – and I turned back around to scan for potential vamps again while he spoke. It took a moment, but I spotted him. He was sitting in the third row from the front, off to the left. He was even wearing a black suit, kind of like the ones the Emissary wear, but I couldn’t tell whether it had their emblem embroidered on the breast pocket or not. I met his gaze and held it, letting him know that I’d found him. He stared right at me in that way that vamps do when you just know they’re trying to read your soul, one wispy layer at a time. He wasn’t just here for the show. That much was obvious. If he was Emissary, what on earth was he doing at a Catalyst concert? Certainly the Emissary had more important things to do than check up on Aurora and I, like tracking down Malena, for one. And if he wasn’t Emissary, well, that was even more confusing. I wished Aurora were sitting there in the front row. At least that way I would know she was trying to decipher the same questions I was. At least that way I would know she was safe. Instead, she was enjoying the show on a screen from the backstage lounge tonight, while simultaneously snapping pictures of several paintings to upload to her website so she could ship them back to The Waking Moon.
Then I realized there were two of them.
The second one was dressed like the first and was sitting in the lowest section off the floor to my left. He met my gaze as well, and I had to force myself to look away so the camera wouldn’t catch my stare-down on the big screens. O’Shea’s voice broke through my thoughts, and I heard him asking the crowd if it was okay if we slowed things down for a minute. The cheering that resulted was my cue to at least try and forget about the vamp in the crowd.
Like that was going to happen.
I set my
water bottle down by my mic stand and leaned into the mic. “Let me see those cell phones in the air,” I said as the guys starting playing the intro to “Sweet Disguise.” I strapped my guitar back on and waved one hand back and forth to direct the crowd until the verse began. As I sang, I scanned the crowd again for the mystery vamps but they were both gone. I tried not to worry about it, not to wonder where they had gone and why they’d left in such a hurry, but it was easier said than done. I couldn’t for the life of me imagine why they were here. Even if I’d wanted to warn Aurora, I wasn’t capable of sifting through all the thought trails in the building to find hers. I’d tried on several occasions, but I could never quite manage to hone in on her specifically through all the energized, almost frantic thoughts, coming my way – more than half of which were about me.
The rest of the set seemed especially long after that, which made me feel like crap. The crowd was really into us, and I did my best not to be distracted. I’m even pretty sure it worked, but I was more than relieved when we finished the last song before the encore. I made my way to the dressing room at last. Aurora was sitting at her laptop, and jumped up when we all came into the room.
“I’m ready, I swear,” she said, hurrying over to the makeup chair as Chase plopped down in it for his zombie makeover.
I changed into my tattered suit, suddenly feeling more than a little ridiculous about the paranoia that had rattled my brain throughout the show.
Aurora was here. She was fine. In fact, everything seemed fine.
I started to wonder if I’d seen the vampires in the crowd at all. It didn’t make sense, anyway. Why would a vampire make an appearance in the crowd just to completely vanish moments later? Maybe I really had imagined the whole thing. Maybe I was in worse shape than I realized. I made a mental note to down some blood from the stash first thing after we finished here. I couldn’t help but scan the crowd again for the vamps when I took the stage as a zombie for the encore. No buzzing power, and no Emissary-looking mystery vamps. I was mostly relieved, and I focused on giving the fans the best zombie performance I knew how to give. Aurora was waiting for me in the lounge and we headed for the bus together. It wasn’t until we were about to climb the bus’s steps that we both felt it at the same time.
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