Fangs And Fame (40 page)

Trey

“
WHERE IS MY WIFE?” I called up the stairs, grinning while I listened for a response.

“
I’m here,” Aurora said, laughing. I climbed the stairs two at a time, which just encouraged Cowboy to chase me, and found her in the master suite. She was gazing in the full-length mirror on the wall, looking absolutely stunning in a bright yellow sundress, and her hair fell in dark curls past her shoulders and down her back.

“
You look perfect,” I told her, “And everyone will be here soon,” I leaned in to sneak a quick kiss. She tasted amazing. “Mmm…. Is that the strawberry lip gloss? Why do you do this to me?” I moaned. “You can’t do that to me when people are about to show up.”

She gave me a devilish smile and crouched down to pet Cowboy.
“If you knew how to keep those perfect lips to yourself, you wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with.”

Cowboy let out a bark, and Aurora patted his head and looked up at me through dark lashes.
“See? Even he agrees.”

“
That was low,” I said, to Cowboy. “What? Now you’re on her side?” Aurora grinned victoriously and kissed me again. “Now it’s your fault,” I told her.

“
Come on,” she said. “I think I just heard your dad’s truck pull up.” I followed her down the stairs and Cowboy went with me to the door while she went to get the steaks out of the fridge.

“
Hey Dad,” I said, pulling the door open wide enough for him to come inside. He gave me a hug that included thumping me on the back and then pulling away to inspect me closer.

“
You look good,” he said. “Aurora’s takes good care of you.”

“
Someone has to,” Aurora said with a grin as she rounded the corner.

“
There she is,” Dad said, his smile widening. He gave her a quick hug and then turned to me and said, “You look like hell compared to her.”

I grinned and rolled my eyes.
“Someone has to.”

Dad called for Cowboy to follow him and
the three of us headed to the backyard. I lit the barbeque and adjusted the flames.

“
Aurora said you’ve been writing new songs when she called,” Dad said. “Anything promising?”

“
I don’t know yet,” I said. “We’ll have to see what happens.”

“
You’ve been home for what now? Five months?”

“
Yeah,” I said. “I guess it has been.”

“
Don’t get in too big of a hurry to run back out on tour,” he teased.

“
We’re enjoying the break for now,” I promised. I looked over at Aurora as she spread tablecloths out, winking when she looked up at smiled at me.

“
I smell food!” I heard Chase call out as he rounded the side of the house with Jonas.

“
I promised we would feed you,” Aurora told him, smiling and shaking her head.

“
That’s why I’m here.” Chase joined her at the table and snuck a noodle from her pasta salad, popping it into his mouth. “Mmhmm….You sure know how to cook for someone who-”

Aurora raised an eyebrow, nodding almost imperceptibly in the direction of my dad.

Chase stuttered. “For someone who, uh, orders in ninety percent of the time.”

I rolled my eyes, biting back a chuckle.
Neon showed up at the same time as Tytus, and the two of them visited with Dad while I put the steaks on the grill. Dad was only too happy to talk about the deep sea fishing trip he and I had just taken in the Keys. The Wahoo I had caught got bigger each time he retold the story. It still sometimes surprised me that I was having these normal father/son experiences with him, but I wouldn’t have traded it in for the world. O’Shea and Kacie arrived next. O’Shea helped me man the barbeque while Kacie helped Aurora set the table. When Angelica came around the side of the house, she was pulling Damir by the hand, as if she couldn’t get him to walk fast enough. She finally released him and came over to give Aurora a hug. Damir waved, and I nodded at him in greeting.

“
Rare?” I asked him, gesturing with a nod to the steaks.

He actually laughed, and I was reminded again that I might actually like this new Damir.
I was still getting used to the idea of liking him, but I was getting there. He’d gotten legal custody of Angelica after bringing her back home with him, but the adoption had only been made official a few weeks ago. Even now he was watching Angelica as she laughed and talked with Kacie and Aurora. Something about that girl had changed him completely. It was something I recognized easily. I knew a thing or two about a woman’s ability to do that.

“
We can’t stay long,” I heard him say to Aurora while O’Shea and I slathered barbeque sauce on the steaks.

“
Damir has a date tonight,” Angelica said in a singsong voice as she threw a tennis ball for Cowboy.

I glanced over my shoulder in time to see Aurora raise an eyebrow at him.

“Don’t look so surprised,” he told her.

“
With whom?” she pried.

“
Malena,” Angelica said matter-of-factly, answering for him.

Damir watched Aurora for her reaction, but she just smiled at him and said,
“Good for you.”

Malena had been serious about seeking redemption that night after the last show. She
’d struck a deal with the Synod, thanks in part to Damir’s recommendation, and she’d been allowed to return home. Antonio had even given her back her old job at Club Sanguine after a few months. She’d been assigned to a new Brood, though. Which even she agreed was probably for the best. Aurora insisted the Malena stuff was all water under the bridge, and maybe it was.

Mark and Hana had trickled in next, and
Antonio and Beck arrived last, completing the guest list. The table was full of people, some human, some vampire. Aurora sat at my side, leading everyone in a toast before we ate. I watched her, amazed. Most of the time even I was surprised that we were making it all work, but there we were surrounded by friends and family. Neither one of us was naive enough to believe that things would ever be easy, but there were moments, just like that one, that made all the chaos melt away and seem insignificant in comparison. It didn’t get better than that.

Three wonderful hours later all of our guests had gone home and Aurora were alone.

“
Come on,” I said to her, jingling the keys to my new car.

“
You just want to drive the Pickle,” she said as she set a pile of dishes in the sink. She lovingly referred to my new Lamborghini Aventador Roadster as the Pickle, simply because it was green.

“
Is this Pickle thing really going to stick?” I asked, frowning.

“
Yep,” she said simply as she turned on the water. “It’s the Pickle. You might as well just get used to the idea.”

“
You’re an artist,” I said. “You could name at least twenty shades of the color green off the top of your head. Isn’t there something cooler than
Pickle
?”

She just laughed.

“Leave the dishes. I’ll do them later, or better yet, you can conjure up your crazy powers and do them with your mind.”

“
I wish,” she said, grinning as she moved a dirty plate. Her abilities had been developing steadily, but mostly in the form of control. She could easily access two or three at a time now, but nothing new had popped up. Mark was still fascinated by her ability to heal people, and he regularly taunted her about being able to retire now that she could take over as the resident healer. Aurora always told him she didn’t want the job, but I knew how much it meant to her that she’d been able to help O’Shea, Jonas, and Beck when they’d really needed her. Knowing what she was capable of us put us both a little more at ease.

“
I promise I’ll wash these when we get back,” I told her again.

She turned off the sink before turning to face me. “Where are we going?”

“
You’ll see when we get there.”

“
A surprise?” she said, grinning.

“
Whatever it takes to get you in the car.”

“
The
Pickle
,” she corrected, smiling.

I shook my head and followed her into the garage.
Our destination was just a short drive away, and Aurora grinned at me when she saw that I was pulling into the parking lot at Carlie’s. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot and cut the engine, seeing her smile fade a little when she realized the reason for the empty parking lot was because Carlie’s wasn’t open.

“
When did they shut down?” she asked.

“
I don’t know exactly,” I said. “I noticed when I drove by the other night.”

“
I haven’t been here since that night,” she said, smiling at the thought.

“
You mean the night you saved me from a group of overzealous fans?”

“
That’s the one.”

I opened my door and climbed out, going around to open hers, as well. Then I pulled out the bottle of blood-laced wine and cups I
’d stashed.

“
I could really use this,” she said as I poured some into a cup and handed it to her. We leaned against the side of the car and sipped our blood/wine, gazing at the building where everything had changed. “It seems like a lifetime ago.”

I knew what she meant, though not even a year had passed since then.
“If that’s a lifetime, I hope we have a hundred more ahead of us,” I told her.

She looked at me before turn
ing her whole body to face me, her yellow dress, and the curls of her dark hair, dancing slightly in the salty evening breeze. She lifted her free hand to my chest, and I held it there with my own. “I’d do it a hundred times if I knew I’d be sitting right here with you in the end.”

“
A hundred times,” I agreed. “With your favorite song always playing in the background.”

She leaned into me, kissing the spot right over my heart. It throbbed a little faster in response, and she laughed softly,
biting her lip.

I loved that she loved doing that to me. I loved even more that she was the only one who could.
I tilted her chin up and kissed her, feeling no less weak in the knees than I had the first time I’d worked up the courage to kiss her at The Waking Moon.

The power she held over me was undeniable, and I was perfectly content
to play her favorite song on repeat … for however many lifetimes we were allowed.

The End

###

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Heather Jensen lives in Southern Utah with her husband and son. She enjoys writing clean fantasy for teens and adults.

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