Angel Dares (11 page)

In the end, far from having an opportunity to talk things through with Summer and Misty, I only had time for a hit-and-run raid on my tent to grab my clothes for the performance.

‘Sorry, guys: in a rush here!’ I shouted as I darted past my friends seated on the grass waiting for me. They looked very comfortably settled, knocking back a few beers and some soft drinks in the sunshine. ‘Jay had made us practise until my fingers were bleeding.’

‘He did what?’ said Will, all ready to go and pound some sense into the idiot.

‘OK, I’m exaggerating,’ I called out through the canvas. ‘They’re a little bit sore but you get the picture. Where, oh where, are my rings?’ I chucked a few T-shirts over my shoulder in a vain attempt to find my jewellery case. ‘I finally forced him to call a halt by pointing out that we had only two hours to get in our costumes and set up.’ I didn’t add that I’d also told him I needed at least that long to prepare—it was a hormonal chick thing, I claimed. Jay allowed my rebellion against his-band-his-rules. His be-nice-to-Angel mood was still lingering like a benign fallout cloud from the shock explosion of my announcement. ‘Who has stolen my belt? I can’t seem to find anything!’ I wailed, rooting through a jumble of clothes.

Summer crawled in next to me. ‘Campbell, get your butt outside this tent. Tell me what you want to wear and I’ll find it for you.’

Looking about me, I saw that I had reduced the tent to a shambles in the few seconds of frantic search, upending my bags. ‘Oh cripes. The new silver dress please—belt and jewellery to match.’

Summer started putting the belongings back in my empty rucksack.

‘Do you want me to help?’ I hovered at her shoulder, ashamed of the mess I’d created.

‘Out.’ She jabbed her finger in the required direction.

I reversed out the low doorway. ‘I think she’s cross with me,’ I told Misty, who was peering in and laughing. ‘Hey, Uri, Victor, you’re here!’ In my haste I had blasted past the new arrivals.

‘How observant of you.’ Uriel, second oldest of the fabulous Benedict brothers, smiled, knowing my ways very well.

I jumped up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. With light brown hair, warm eyes, and a wiry athletic stature, he was a gorgeous example of a man. He had a lovely, approachable air to him, like a warm bakery on a cold day. ‘How’s Tarryn, Uri?’

His smile broadened even further at the mention of his lady. ‘Good, thanks. She’s got an interview in a school in Colorado Springs the day after tomorrow or she would’ve been here.’

‘Oh, that’s great. I really hope she gets it.’ It looked like Uriel and his South African soulfinder were finally getting their lives to mesh. ‘Tell her I said “good luck”.’ I turned to the other new arrival, Victor, the scariest of the brothers who did something very hush-hush for the FBI. It was odd to see him out of his sharp suits and wearing festival gear of T-shirt and jeans, like seeing your head teacher on holiday. ‘Um, hi, Victor.’

‘Hello, Angel,’ he said solemnly, though I think he was teasing me. As a mind reader, he would know that I was terrified of him—not what he would do to me but what he would find out about me. It felt like a foretaste of the final judgement standing before the all-seeing, all-knowing Victor.

His lips quirked, his grey eyes crinkling a little at the edges. ‘You’ve got that wrong, Angel. I don’t know everything—far from it.’ He leaned closer. ‘I just make people think I do—gets results.’

I grinned and gave a theatrical shiver. ‘Works on me every time.’

Summer emerged from the tent carrying my dress and belt draped over one arm and shoes in the other. ‘These what you were looking for?’

‘Shoes! I’d forgotten about them.’ Just looking at those high heels made my arches scream but a girl has to sacrifice comfort for fashion when she is performing before Kurt Voss. I let out a little squeak of excitement. ‘This is just the best day of my life and I love you all to pieces!’

Will laughed. ‘Now we’ve got that settled, do you have time to tell us what the hell’s going on with you? Leave you five minutes and you have wormed your way to a dinner invitation with the hottest band on the planet and identified a suspect for your own soulfinder.’ He rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. ‘I thought this was about me.’

I checked the time on Uriel’s watch. I had five minutes before I had to run back to the performers’ zone. There were dressing rooms available for artists that were much better than trying to wriggle into that dress in a metre-and-a-half-high tent. I plonked myself down on the grass and took a deep breath.

‘OK, here’s how it happened.’

When I finished my summary of the day, Victor was already on his phone.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked.

‘Texting my colleagues. If these guys are unregistered savants then they’re in danger and could be a risk to our community. I’m checking them against the grey list.’

‘Grey list?’ asked Alex. He was sitting with his legs and arms around Misty so she could use him like a backrest.

‘The one we keep off the Savant Net. Some people ask not to have their names out there.’

‘A secret annex to an already secret list,’ mused Alex.

‘Like being ex-directory,’ suggested Summer.

‘Good idea if you’re mega famous like Kurt,’ I said.

Misty threw a daisy at me. ‘“Kurt” is it now? On first-name terms, are you?’

I grinned and threw it back. ‘Absolutely. You should’ve seen me rub Jay’s face in it when I announced I was Kurt’s new BFF. He’s even let me back into the band on the strength of it. He couldn’t resist the ace chance to schmooze.’

That set off a round of not very flattering comments about my lead singer.

I jumped up and brushed off the seat of my leggings. ‘Sorry, guys, but I really have to go.’

‘Just a moment!’ Will grabbed my hand and tugged me to a stop. ‘I know you want to test out whether this Marcus guy is your soulfinder—of course you do—but promise me you’ll only do it when you are sure you’re in the clear. I don’t know how sensitive that psychic detection device can be.’

‘It picked up your telepathic messages to me when you were commentating on Alex’s debate at my school, Angel,’ said Misty. ‘Davis didn’t know at the time it was you though, so I guess it works in a largish room and is not very focused.’

Will nodded. ‘So best to be cautious, OK, sweetheart?’

There was so much going on, my head was whirling. I spelt out my agenda for them, tapping each finger. ‘Right—no irresponsible telepathy, check. Give one show-stopping performance to impress rock god, check. Avoid kicking Jay in the you-know-whats at after-show pizza party, check. Ditto to said rock godling with insulting song, check. Find Will’s soulfinder, check. Have one hell of an evening, check.’ Giggling, I grabbed my costume and shoes from Summer and started jogging back to the security gate.

‘Jewellery!’ called Summer.

I turned and Alex lobbed me the travel case. I caught it against my chest. ‘What would I do without all of you, hey? See you later.’

Nerves made my insides ripple like wobbly jelly. I leaned against the stairs leading up to the stage from backstage, taking deep calming breaths like Summer had tried to teach me. Normally I would play with the water in my bottle, making it spin and bubble to settle my mind, but I couldn’t risk it. Banned from my usual pre-show ritual, I had to make do with yoga breathing—and I suck at the mindfulness stuff that everyone else seems to like. Stop and be quiet: that’s when I panic.

Matt ambled up, chewing on a crisp from packet of salt and vinegar. He held it out. ‘Want one?’

I shook my head. ‘How can you be so calm?’

‘I’m not calm. This is my sixth packet. If I stop eating, I’ll throw up.’

‘Oh Lord, oh Lord,’ I moaned, pressing my hand against my tummy. ‘Why did you have to mention that?’

Jay strode over, giving us his version of a military inspection. ‘Everyone here?’

‘Yeah, Jay,’ the guys mumbled.

‘Angel, you look sweet. Nice dress.’ An unsnide compliment from Jay—the world was surely about to end?

‘Thanks.’

Gathering his thoughts, he looked about him. We could hear the crowd massed on the field in front of the second stage. Our performance area was built near the woods at the western edge of the festival ground. It was probably good for me that we were away from the sea. One result of my gift is that I am tuned into any moving water. The sea sets my instincts buzzing. I had enough going on without having to clamp down on the urge to play with the waves. The only downside here was the mosquitos that came out at twilight; otherwise it was a real boost for our band of newbies to make it on to the evening programme on one of the proper stages rather than a session tent. We might even get televised if the cameras were looking for some new action.

Jay laced his fingers together and squeezed them hard. ‘Just play your best, guys. I’ve every faith in you.’

I couldn’t get used to this ‘nice’ Jay. It was like that Lego character—good cop/bad cop. I kept expecting his head to spin round so it would be back to the normal foul character.

‘You too, mate,’ said Matt, filling in the awkward silence.

The lights came on stage, which was our signal to set up.

‘OK, let’s do this!’ Jay ran up the stairs. I followed with Black Adder tucked under my arm, trying not to teeter on my heels. As we walked out on to the stage, the audience gave us a welcoming round of applause even before the announcer gave our name.

‘Yo, Angel!’ bellowed Will.

I shaded my eyes to find my friends right down by the barrier. The three Benedict boys and Alex formed a formidable honour guard for Misty and Summer.

‘Looking good!’ called Uriel.

Misty and Summer waved. Alex gave a sharp whistle. Even Victor was smiling.

Feeling a little more settled, I plugged in Black Adder and checked the tuning. The other guys in the band were doing their pre-show checks but everything seemed very efficient and there were no blips. Jay waited to meet our gaze, making sure his troops were in position. ‘Good to go?’

We nodded.

Jay signalled the stage manager that we were all set.

‘And now!’ thundered the announcer. ‘Kicking off tonight’s programme we have a debut band from London. I’m sure we’re going to hear much more of them after this. So give it up for Seventh Edition!’

The crowd gave us a roar of approval. I glanced over the faces, wondering if Kurt had kept his promise to come. But he wouldn’t be out there among the herd of music lovers on the field, would he? That would cause a stampede if he were spotted.

‘Thank you for your great Rockport welcome. We’re going to start with a favourite song of ours called “Star-Crossed”. I really hope you enjoy it,’ said Jay, wooing the audience with more charm than he usually showed to people when he met them in the singular.

I couldn’t see Kurt anywhere front or backstage, which was a shame as this was my biggest number.

Head in the game, Angel. I closed my eyes, counting myself in from Matt’s percussion intro. And play.

The song was going really well. Jay delivered the lyrics with an emotional charge he would be totally unable to manage in real life, as his empathy was the depth of a kiddie’s paddling pool. He reached my favourite verse just before my solo.

I see you standing at your window

My life starts again

Love falls like stars

A glitter of pain.

Then something happened inside me; it was like a key change from minor to major. As I reached my section, I took off and began to fly. My fingers were playing—my violin was singing—but it was like they no longer belonged to me but were fellow birds in a flock of music. It was scary and exhilarating at the same time; I felt out of control, connected to the ground only by the notes resting lightly to the stave, birds on a telephone wire waiting to soar. Even stranger, I could feel this mood was flowing out of me and touching the audience. They were linked to me, enraptured as I was.

I reached the end of my riff and the crowd sang out their pleasure, subsiding only to hear the final verse and chorus. I had to nudge myself to remember to provide the harmony to Jay’s voice. ‘Star-Crossed’ came to an end and we received a prolonged barrage of applause, shouts and whistles. Jay’s face was gleaming with a mist of perspiration and pleasure. Matt gave me a thumbs up. I was still shaken, convinced some strange alchemy had taken place inside turning me into a very different sort of musician.

It was then that I noticed Marcus and Kurt. They were standing in the wings, watching our performance alongside the stage manager. Both were dressed in black so they looked like members of the backstage crew but I would recognize them anywhere, the relaxed posture of the rock god and the defensive vigilance of his younger friend.

Kurt I had expected, but Marcus?

‘Thank you, thank you,’ said Jay. ‘And now a few words to introduce the band. Over there on the drums is my main man, Matt.’ The crowd cheered. ‘We have Owen on guitar, Kyle on bass, Richie on sax—and … ’ He paused. This last was a public admission he was loath to make. His swallow was almost audible. ‘And Angel on vocals and violin.’

I received a huge whoop and many wolf whistles. My friends started a chant of ‘An-gel, An-gel’ just to annoy Jay.

Our lead singer gave a sickly smile at my reception. ‘And I’m Jay.’ He was cheered too—after all he was doing a great job this evening. Spirits restored, Jay bent back to the mic. ‘Now for our next song: ‘Broken Queen’.

The rest of the concert passed too quickly. I was acutely aware of the listeners in the wings but somehow my mind had managed to split in half: one part was doing embarrassing fangirl jiggles of delight but the other was lost in the new understanding of how music resided inside your bones, not in the brain. When we got to the end, the audience shouted for an encore. Jay was going to sing ‘Broken Queen’ but the crowd chanted ‘Star-Crossed, Star-Crossed!’ and he was canny enough to give in. It was even better the second time. I was ready for the swooping feeling and could go with the flock of notes this time. I even forgot about our audience of two backstage. There was nothing but the music.