Fangs And Fame (5 page)

Trey

WHEN I LEFT THE
stage that night I hurried to the shower room and cleaned up. Aurora was waiting on the bus for me, just like I’d anticipated, but tonight was anything but ordinary. She was sitting on one of the leather sofas in the dark, surrounded by an assortment of flameless candles that were flaunting the shadows they cast on the blinds. She got to her feet as I approached, wrapping her arms around my neck.

“
You were incredible tonight, as always,” she said.

“
Thank you,” I said, resting my hands on her hips. “I saw you sneak off before the end of the set, but I wasn’t expecting the candles.”

“
I was hoping it would sort of – I don’t know – set the mood,” she said, biting her bottom lip as she glanced around. “I always kind of imagined we’d be with Antonio and Mark for your first ritual. That would have been ... more official, I guess. But here we are on a bus, and you’re stuck with just me. I’m trying to make it work. What do you think?”

“
Oh, I think you set the mood, all right.” I bent down and kissed her, pulling her close. I felt her relax against me, her hand falling into place to rest on my chest. She returned the kiss eagerly, probably feeding off the flourish of my nervous excitement. There was nothing better than coming off the stage, high on a performance, and having Aurora waiting for me. As far as I was concerned, this was the perfect ending to an amazing night. Life didn’t get much better than this. Then a knock sounded on the bus door, and I groaned in displeasure and straightened, calling out, “Yeah?” The door opened slowly and Jerry, the driver, stepped inside, raising his eyebrows at the scene. That was when Aurora reached up with her thumb to wipe some of her lip gloss from my mouth.

“
Hey, at least I knocked,” Jerry said. Aurora leaned into me, my T-shirt muffling her giggle.

I grinned and sighed, nodding at him.
“Hey, Jerry.”

“
We’re heading out,” he said. “Don’t mind me. I’ll just be up here in the driver’s seat minding my own business.”

I looked down at Aurora, who was still trying not to laugh.
“You’re no help,” I said to her as I reached over with one hand and turned on the bus’s sound system, which was loud enough to drown out everything on this end.

“
I’m sorry,” she mouthed when she regained her composure.

I smiled at her.
“Liar,” I mouthed back. She grinned and grabbed the nearest flameless candle, putting it in my hands. She gathered a few more and led the way to the back of the bus where she sat them around wherever they would fit. The bus’s engine started up, sending small, but distinct vibrations along the bottoms of my feet through my shoes.

“
Better?” she asked as I sat down on the couch.

“
I was fine before,” I teased her, gesturing to the front of the bus. “Just be glad it wasn’t one of the guys coming in. One look at these candles, and we’d never hear the end of it.”

“
You mean
you’d
never hear the end of it,” she corrected.

“
It’s bad enough they refer to our bus as the honeymoon-mobile,” I added as the bus began moving. “So, now what?”

“
Now we wait,” she said. “There’s still five minutes to midnight, which is actually a good thing. There’s not exactly a great view of the moon from here, though. Have you decided what ability you’re going to choose?”

“
I’m going to stick with the same one,” I said confidently.

“
You’re sure?” she asked.

“
It’s all still too new,” I said. “I’m not ready to be cut off from our silent communication just yet. Not while I’m still trying to figure out how to be a vampire on tour. Most nights it’s the only thing that keeps me sane.”

She straddled my legs, sitting on my lap.
“Hey,” she said, taking my face in her hands and forcing me to look at her. “This is all new for me, too,” she said. “I’m still not sure I’m cut out to be anyone’s maker, but we’re going to figure this out together.” Then she leaned in and her lips met mine again. Her kiss was deliberate, like a jolt of adrenaline, and my vampire heartbeat shifted gears accordingly. It was a reminder that I had absolutely no control over my reaction to her. Somehow, I knew it would always be so. Something like that doesn’t fade with time, not centuries worth of it.

I was counting on that.

She pulled back and gazed at me unabashedly with luminescent green eyes, her razor sharp fangs glinting behind her lips in the false candlelight. I still felt that same sense of wonder I’d experienced the first time she revealed herself to me. My fangs had unsheathed themselves during the kiss, triggering my night sight, as well. “It’s a shame your fans will never see you like this,” Aurora said, running her thumb along my bottom lip, brushing it lightly against my fangs. “You’d really cause a scene.”

I caught her wrist in my hand, bringing it to my mouth to kiss softly.
“They can have every other part of me, but this ... this is just for you.”

She grinned victoriously and kissed me again, this time soft and slow. There was no doubt in my mind that she was taking her time with me, savoring the emotional link our kiss brought to life. I kissed her back, my mind reeling with the taste of strawberries on her lips. This time when she pulled back she took a deep, unnecessary breath and said with absoluteness,
“It’s time.” I nodded, and when she stood again I pulled the cord to retract the blinds until the night sky was in full view out the window next to me. Aurora came back with a champagne glass for each of us, filled with blood from our stash. I held my glass as she settled herself on my lap again, facing me. I was just starting to think about how I could get used to having our own private full-moon rituals. Nothing against Antonio or Mark, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing just then.

“
She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Aurora said, admiring our view of the moon.

I meant to follow her gaze, to look upon the source of my new-found powers, but I couldn
’t take my eyes off of her. Her full lips were parted slightly, a shade not unlike the blood in the glass her slender fingers cradled. I ran my thumb back and forth across the texture of her jeans, enjoying the pleasant, almost insubstantial weight of her on my legs. As I watched her staring at the moon, I had a feeling – almost like I was witnessing a private moment between the two of them. I knew with certainty then that Aurora’s affinity with the moon – to her vampire heritage and the power she called to her so effortlessly – was as strong and tangible as any connection she had with me. The realization was both humbling and fascinating. Her eyes closed, and she brought the glass to her lips, slowly sipping the life-giving liquid from it. Then she lowered the glass and was still for a second before opening her piercing green eyes to meet mine.

“
Your turn.”

“
How do you do that?” I asked, my voice just above a whisper. I couldn’t help it. The words left my lips without permission. Of course, I knew something like that couldn’t be taught. There was no way Aurora realized just how incredible she was, but I had no idea where to go from here.

“
You’ve done this before,” she said. “It’s even easier when you’re body isn’t ... dying.”

I chuckled at her hesitation at the word.
“I know,” I said. “It’s just a little like being asked to go on stage right after watching Mick Jagger bring the house down.”

She gave me a knowing smile and said,
“We just left behind an arena full of people who would say
you’re
their Mick Jagger.” She ignored my eye-roll and slid forward on my lap, closing the small gap between us. “Your connection with the night is unique to you.” With a twist on our usual gesture, she took my free hand and pulled it to her heart. I closed my eyes as her heart fluttered against my palm. An image of the moon, as clear and bright as it shone outside the window, was forged in my mind. Aurora’s doing, of course. I focused all of my senses on her; on the sound and feel of her heart as it guided my thoughts like a bass drum carrying the rhythm of a song.

“
It’s you,” I breathed, looking up at her. “You’re my connection to the night. To the new me. To all of this.”

“
I might be a part of it now, but your connection with her has always been there.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Close your eyes again,” she urged. I did as I was told, taking a breath just for the calming motion of it. “I want you to imagine yourself before you met me. Put yourself in a place where you felt at peace. A place where you felt free. Just pull the image into your mind and hold onto it.”

I imagined myself standing front and center on stage, a guitar in my hands. I was alone on the stage, and the crowd was almost muted, their shouts muffled so as not to distract me from my objective. I felt a slight jump in the hum of Aurora
’s power, only noticeable because of my increased awareness. She was in my head, viewing the same image I had created.

“
Good,” she said softly. “Now peel back the entire roof of the arena,” Aurora encouraged. “What do you see?” I did as she asked, mentally stripping the top of the arena from its walls to reveal the night sky. The moon hung just above me, watching. “It’s always been there,” she said. “The night served its purpose for you as a human, and it will continue to do that for you as a vampire. You’re just now learning to take advantage of it in new ways.”

She was right. I
’d always had a connection to the night in my own way. It was just changing, evolving like I was. I felt Aurora’s power ebb from me. As I stood on the stage in my mind, I lifted my eyes to the moon and spread my arms in a gesture of openness. I welcomed the opportunity to stand there, awash in her silver glow.
Grant me the ability to read the minds of others,
I asked, repeating the phrase over and over in my mind until I was satisfied. I opened my eyes and Aurora smiled, clinking her glass with mine. I brought it to my lips and drank. The blood went down smooth, renewing me one burning swallow at a time. The warmth spread from my chest outward, reaching the tips of my fingers and toes, and all the way to the top of my skull.

“
I’ll never grow tired of this.” I breathed, enjoying the rush.

“
Not bad for our first tour bus ritual,” Aurora said.

“
Not bad at all, Mrs. Decker,” I said to her. “And you thought you weren’t cut out for all this maker stuff.”

She grinned at me and took another sip from her glass. We sat in comfortable silence for a moment, finishing off the blood
, and enjoying the moon in the night sky, as we rolled along on the freeway.

“
Have you thought about what you want to do for your birthday?” she asked.

I sighed.
“I haven’t put much thought into it, to tell you the truth,” I admitted. “We have a show that night.”

“
Yeah, but we’ll be in Vegas,” she added. “I’ve never been to Vegas.”

“
We’ll have to figure out a way to celebrate somehow,” I said, smiling at the childlike excitement in her voice. “I wonder how long we’ll-”

“
We’ll get there a day early to shoot the ‘Mirage’ video, and you have that night off. I already checked the schedule,” she answered, anticipating my question. “Maybe you and I will celebrate that night.”

“
That sounds amazing, actually,” I said, smiling at the thought of a night off in Vegas with the most beautiful woman on the planet. My short-lived fantasy was interrupted when the bus jerked slightly, and we quickly lost speed. Aurora raised her eyebrows at me for a heartbeat, and then she was off my lap, both of us heading to the front of the bus to see what was going on. I threw open the curtain that separated the driving area from the rest of the bus just as Jerry was pulling over on the side of the road.

“
What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as Aurora had killed the music.

“
No idea,” Jerry said. “But something ain’t right.”