The Devil's Metal (32 page)

“I don’t know how I just lied there, crying
on those muddy banks, my pajamas totally ruined by the clay. I
remember thinking I’d need a new pair and that my dad was going to
be furious.

“That’s when the splashing started. I looked
at the lake and…there was a woman walking out of it. She was
totally naked. Long pale white hair, even when wet. She was the
most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen and at that point I’d been
looking at a lot of Robbie’s nudie mags.

“Obviously I thought I was dreaming. I’d
told myself that it was all just a dream for a very, very long
time. But I know that’s not the case anymore.

“I got to my feet and the woman walked
toward me, leaving no footprints behind. She had brilliant light
gold eyes that seemed to glow from within. I asked her who she was.
She told me her name was Alva and that she could give me whatever I
wanted.

“I didn’t believe her but then again I
thought it was a dream. How the hell could it not be a dream? So I
asked her, “What do you mean, anything?”

“She said she was magic and that if I wanted
to make a deal with her, she would give me anything my heart
desired. Smart boy that I was, even in a dream, I asked her what
the catch was.

“She smiled and said there was no catch.
That this was a loan. I would tell her what I wanted and she would
give it to me for a certain amount of time. When the time was up,
they would take back everything that was given to me.

“I asked who “they” were—she said she didn’t
work alone. She made the deals and she had others making sure that
all sides of the bargain were upheld. This, in her words, meant
making sure my desires were fulfilled, then later, making sure they
were taken from me.”

Debt collectors
, I thought.

“It sounded like a pretty good bargain to my
young mind. Not that I believed a second of it. But for a dream, it
made sense. So I told Alva what I wanted. I said, “I want to rich
and famous. I want to be really good at guitar and to be known for
my songwriting skills. I want respect from my bandmates, everyone
except Robbie because he already respects me. I want to find
someone to love, and when I do, I want them to love me back.”

“So Alva stuck out her hand. We shook on it.
It felt our hands were being fused together. The lake began to
bubble and boil like a hot tub, steam started to rise, as did dark
shapes from the water. I saw monsters skulking around in the clay,
giant earthworms with teeth. Alva’s eyes went from pale gold to tar
black and when she smiled her face turned into a demon’s.

“You’ll be seeing us soon. Enjoy your
twenty-eighth birthday,” she said in a voice that sounded exactly
like what came out of Mambo Maryse.

“Then it all went black. When I woke up, I
was still on the banks of the river and the sun was just creeping
over the mountains. Birdsong filled the air. It was nearly
impossible to think it was anything other than a dream.

“Shortly after, the guitarist fell ill and I
took his place. Turns out I was brilliant at the guitar, more so
than I used to be. After that, Graham joined and pushed our sound
to another level. Success came slowly but surely. My father was
injured in a minor car accident but ended up winning a huge
settlement. When I left school, I fell in love with the most
gorgeous woman I had ever seen. Soon she fell in love with me and
we were married. I had respect. A bit of fame. A bit of fortune. I
had everything.

When I was twenty-five, my wife decided
she’d had enough of me. She asked for a divorce and took half my
money. After that I fell in love with a model. She died a year
later, slipped in her bathtub. Freak accident. Then I had a brief
affair with Noelle while she and Mickey were on a break. I don’t
need to tell you what has happened to her. Money started to
disappear. I wanted to push myself on Molten Universe, but the
album didn’t quite do it. My twenty-eighth birthday is around the
corner, Dawn. Everything else will be taken.”

I had been so busy listening, absolutely
enthralled and horrified, that I hadn’t noticed how far we’d
walked. We were approaching the city again and the chances of
getting a cab were on the rise.

Sage stopped and put his hands on my
shoulders.

“Do you believe any of that?” he
whispered.

I nodded, even though it sounded too
outrageous to be true. I mean, I know I just said I had an open
mind but…this was pushing it. I could believe demons and curses,
but I had a hard time thinking this was because of a bargain he
made with a woman called Alva nearly fifteen years ago.

Well, a demon called Alva and her minions of
debt collectors. And just like that, everything made sense again.
Or at least it tried to make sense. I felt like I had an
ill-fitting puzzle board and I was pressing really hard to get the
pieces to fit.

“How do I come into it?” I asked, my voice
soft. I was scared to hear the answer.

Sage took his hand and ran it down the side
of my cheek, his fingers gently stroking my skin. Goosebumps of
desire competed with goosebumps of fear. Maybe they were one and
the same.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, resting his
forehead against mine, his eyes staring absently at my lips. “I
forgot to mention. One of the things I asked from Alva was that our
last tour go down in history and that the story be in every
magazine and newspaper. Everyone on earth would know the story of
Hybrid.”

I flinched.

“So you can see why I didn’t want you on
this tour. If no one was there to write about it, no one would
care. I really didn’t want this to be our last tour.”

I swallowed hard, breaking out of his grasp.
“We need a cab. Then I need a drink. And maybe some of Robbie’s
painkillers.”

“It’s a lot to take in,” he admitted.

I laughed caustically, feeling like I was
losing my mind. “It’s a lot to take in already. It’s too bad
there’s more to come.”

We walked for a bit longer until we caught a
cab. I was trapped in my head, just reeling, unable to come to
terms with what was going on. Bob hadn’t been far off with his
ideas. I just didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do with
the information. Convince everyone else to cancel the tour? Tell
Bob to get out while he could? Oh god, Mel was meeting us in San
Antonio tomorrow. I was going to have to do everything in my power
to make sure she was safe.

Once we were back at the venue, we were met
with a bunch of angry people. I felt like yelling at them all and
asking them if they had any idea what the bigger picture was here.
But I couldn’t.

I also wanted to do something to Graham,
anything. If my instincts were telling me something, it was that he
wasn’t even part of the damn band and never was. He was only there
to make sure the contract was fulfilled. He probably wasn’t even
human.

And Jacob. The man who wrangled me into this
mess. I had a few words for him but they had to wait till
morning.

I climbed onto the bunk in my clothes, feet
aching from the walk, head aching from the revelations. I fell
asleep, hoping I’d live to see the sunrise.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I missed the sunrise but I did wake up,
which was a major bonus. I hadn’t died in my sleep and the bus
hadn’t careened off the road in some horrible accident. I was alive
and so was everyone else. No one was very cheery, of course, as the
bus made its way through strong sunshine and flat, dry desert on
the way to San Antonio. The rest of the band was hung up on the
dismal showing of the New Orleans show.

I was hung up on the fact that Sage made a
deal with the devil and it seemed like everything was going to be
taken from him—and from us—over the next few days. Two different
things to worry about but each was valid in its own way.

When the bus pulled into a remote diner for
breakfast I took the opportunity to grab Jacob.

“Can we have breakfast in here? Alone?” I
asked him.

He frowned but didn’t ask why. “All right,
love. I guess one of the boys can bring us back something to
eat.”

“No problem,” Bob spoke up. They all piled
off the bus, stretching to the fresh air and sunshine. Sage was the
last to leave and he was giving me a look, either the “don’t you
want me to stay?” eyes or the “what the hell are you doing?” stare
but I gave him a quick shake of my head, my hint to leave me and
Jacob alone. He obliged, dragging his flip-flops.

After they left, Jacob picked up the kettle.
“I suppose some more coffee is probably needed, am I correct?”

“You are.”

He made us both a cup and plunked the coffee
creamer on the table for me. He eased himself into the booth, had a
sip, then gave me a very insincere smile.

“I have a feeling I’m not going to like
this,” he said.

“Only if you have a problem with being
honest.”

“Rusty, I’m as honest as they come.”

I cleared my throat and stared him down. And
who was ‘they’ anyway?

“There’s a very small chance that you’ll
think I’m crazy. Or that Sage is crazy. Or that I’m crazy for
believing him. But I have to tell you anyway because I believe it’s
the truth. And I believe you already know about it. I just want to
make sure we’re on the same page.”

A small smile twitched on his lips, his eyes
flickering with uncertainty. “Go on…”

I started at the beginning of the tour and
touched on every single thing. Everything. The GTFOs, Noelle,
Graham, the stage collapse, what happened with Sage last night.
Everything.

When I was done explaining, the coffee was
cold and I was out of breath. I glanced at the diner, hoping they
weren’t coming back soon, and brought my expectant gaze to
Jacob’s.

He was smiling at me. “So what do you want
me to say?”

I looked at him askance. “I don’t
know…anything. I mean, you’re involved. The mambo said so.”

“Well if the mambo said,” he said jokingly.
He leaned back in his seat, resting one arm along the top of
it.

“So you’re not?”

“I’m not involved. That’s not my job.”

“What’s your job then?”

“I’m the manager. I manage.”

“So you don’t believe me.”

“Believe you? Rusty, I know everything that
you’ve told me. I’ve seen it too. I know exactly what’s going on
and I’ve known for a very long time.”

My mouth dropped open. “How…how is that
possible?”

“How is any of this possible?” He gestured
at the bus. “It just is.”

“What are you?” the words barely escaped my
mouth.

“Nice choice of words there. Are you
insinuating I’m not quite human? Perhaps a demon like Graham? No,
I’m human. I am now anyway. I made my own deal.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“There are others like me, Rusty. We’re
intermediaries. Some of us are guides. Some of us are guards in
another place not unlike this one, a place called the Thin Veil.
Some of us are managers in the most literal sense. We are referees.
We uphold contracts to make sure things are fairly played out.”

“But you’re a famous tour manager!”

Jacob shrugged. “This isn’t my first rodeo.
Anyhow, all of us Jacobs are allowed to trade in our given
occupations for a chance at mortality. It’s called ‘going rogue’. I
chose to stay here. We are all given that choice, but we give up
immortality for it. That’s Jacob’s price. After Hybrid falls apart,
I’ll still be around, God willing of course. I’ll manage another
band, hopefully some boring hippie shit.”

“And you’re all called Jacob?”

He nodded. “We are the Jacobs. But we can
take whatever name we want if we go rogue. So far I’m sticking with
Jacob. It suits me. It’s so very biblical.”

“Are you an angel?” I asked, knowing how
stupid that sounded.

He laughed, full and hearty. It shook the
bus. When he finally calmed down, he wiped his eyes and sputtered,
“Oh my bollocks, Rusty. No, I am not an angel. I’m not good nor am
I bad. I’m just here, trying to keep the playing field even. Of
course if I can manage things in my favor, I’m going to. I’m the
manager. It’s what I do.”

I looked down at my coffee and put my head
in my hands. “I don’t believe any of this.”

“No, I don’t blame you.”

“Does Sage know?”

“I’m sure Sage has always suspected. But
he’s never said anything to me.”

“Does Graham know?””

He nodded. My throat went dry. “So we’re all
fucked.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say we’re all fucked.”

“Are they going to take Sage’s soul?”

“They might try. But that’s not part of the
bargain. As Miss Mambo said, they are very literal. That’s the only
good thing about demons. But if Sage kills himself because he’s
lost everything he loves, that’s fair game.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How can you be
so blasé? People are dying.”

“That’s life. It’s not my fault. Sage is the
one who made the deal.”

“He was a teenager.”

“Another reason to fear the youth.”

I sighed, blowing a piece of hair out of my
face. It was all too much. My eyes flew to the window where I saw
the boys leaving the diner, Bob holding two Styrofoam packages for
me and Jacob.

Shit. I had so much to talk about and barely
any time to do it.

“So you’re going to just let it happen,” I
said.

“If you haven’t noticed,” he hissed, leaning
in. “I’m trying hard to make sure the band ends up on top. Sage
didn’t give me much wiggle room.”

“And me. What happens if I just leave?” I
asked.

“You can try. But you won’t be able to. It’s
too late. You had your chance to leave, we could have brought
another person in.”

“You chose me though! Why? Why me of all
people?”

He shrugged. A pause. Then, “I thought a fan
should be around for the end.”

The door to the bus opened, the boys’ voices
coming in.