Blood and Guitars (16 page)

“You sounded great in there,” I said as Trey
pulled me down the hallway toward the lounge near the front of the
building.

“Thanks,” he said, grinning. “I hope it
wasn’t too much to endure.”

“No, I really enjoyed listening in,” I said
truthfully. “And it’s been an informative evening, that’s for
sure.”

We sat down in the lounge and it was quiet
for a moment, but not an awkward silence. Then I decided to ask the
question that had been burning in the back of my mind since I’d
heard his first take on the song tonight. “So, who was she?” He
looked at me, and even though I knew he needed no further
explanation, I added, “The girl you wrote that song about?”

He let out a soft sigh and played with the
seam in the couch cushion for a second before he answered.
“Ex-girlfriend.” I nodded, and then he was talking again. “She was
the kind of girl it’s too easy to meet in this business,” he added.
“And I was too blind to see it at the time.” He was quiet for a few
heartbeats and then he said, “But I might as well get a decent song
out of it. It’s about the only thing I’ll get out of the
relationship, if you can call it that.”

“That bad, huh?”

“It was probably good for me in the end,” he
said. “I made a lot of mistakes that I won’t make again. Sometimes
you have to live it first, I guess.”

“You loved her,” I observed.

He met my eyes for a few solid seconds before
dropping his gaze to the floor. “I thought I did.” But I’d heard
the sting of heartache in his voice tonight. I reacted by squeezing
his hand. “Anyway, it was a long time ago.” Trey looked at me again
and said, “Thanks for coming with me tonight.” Then he smiled and
added, “I work better under pressure, and having a hot girl in the
sound room keeps me on top of my game.”

I could only hold my breath as he leaned in
closer to me and then his lips were on mine again. Maybe it was
because I had anticipated the whole emotional link this time, but
whatever the reason, when Trey’s emotions started to churn around
inside of me, it wasn’t as overwhelming as I remembered. The
connection was still there, though. There was no doubt about that.
It’s hard to pinpoint the specific feelings I was getting from him,
mostly because they kept shifting, but I got a general sense of
euphoria. I could hear the sturdy sound of his heart thumping as
his calloused fingers gently caressed my cheek. The smell of the
shampoo he’d used in his hair, the hint of cologne that drifted up
through the neck of his tee-shirt, and the underlying smell of the
sweet blood that coursed through his veins all blended together in
a mouthwatering combination.

My mind was impossibly filled to the brim
with Trey, and my heartbeat raced to match his. The kiss was slow
and sweet and deliberate. I kept my eyes closed, enjoying the
blending of emotions that came from having Trey’s mix with my own.
It was the strangest, most wonderful sensation and it ended much
too soon, interrupted by the tingling sensation in my teeth that I
always get before my fangs unsheathe. I tried to fight the instinct
to shift to my natural self, but it was too powerful. I tried to
block the emotional flood from my mind, anything to make the kiss
last a little longer, but I found it impossible to think past him
and his emotions as they rushed through me. For a vampire who is
known for her mental fortitude, I was failing miserably. The
connection between Trey and I was chemical, and there was no
stopping it. I managed to pull back in time and the tingling in my
mouth stopped as I stared into Trey’s ocean eyes, the rush of his
emotions ebbing away. Our breathing leveled out as we gazed
intently at one another.

“I’ve wanted to do that ever since I picked
you up earlier,” he admitted.

“What took you so long?” I breathed.

He chuckled and took a deep breath. “You make
me nervous.”

“I do?” But even as I asked it, I recalled a
flourish of nervous energy somewhere in that kiss. If I hadn’t been
so overwhelmed I would have smelled his anxiety too. The scent was
obvious now.

“I can’t explain it. I haven’t felt like this
around a girl since I was thirteen and crushing on a freshman. It’s
bizarre.”

I laughed softly and shrugged at him. “I have
that affect on people,” I said with a grin. What I didn’t say was
that vampires have that affect on people. If I hadn’t just had a
direct channel to his feelings, I might have been able to convince
myself that was all it was. That he was only feeling this way about
me because I was a creature of the night. But I knew better.

Trey was falling for me.

And even without the weird emotional link
that kissing seemed to create between us I would have been able to
see that. Harder to admit to myself, but no less true, was the fact
that I had been hoping all day that Trey would kiss me again. Now
that he had, and I was confident the intimate link hadn’t just been
a fluke the first time around, I wanted it to continue. I hadn’t
been close to somebody in years. Not since Aden was alive. Mark and
I were friends, but I kept a wall up even with him. I wanted the
connection between Trey and I to continue, and I could see only one
problem with that. Admittedly, it was a big problem.

Trey was mortal, not to mention a famous
mortal.

I knew I was pushing my luck by hanging
around him as it was. But anything more? I wasn’t sure I could pull
it off. Even kissing Trey brought on the rush of adrenaline that
usually forces my fangs to emerge and my eyes to glow. For a
vampire it’s instinctual, a survival technique, and definitely not
something I would normally want to fight. Then I thought about the
rush of unfathomable feeling I’d just experienced and realized that
it didn’t matter. I was going to have to find a way to make it
work. One thing was certain: no one could know.

Not Antonio. Not Mark. No one.

Some pizza and a few hours later, I was
actually starting to feel like part of the group around Trey’s
friends. I had time to get to know all of his band mates a little
better while Trey was finishing recording the rest of the vocals
for “Sweet Disguise.” I’d even taken O’Shea up on a game of
foosball, in which I’d had to pretend that I couldn’t nail every
shot without trying so he wouldn’t wonder if I was some sort of
freak. Or a total dork. I wasn’t even sure why I cared, but I
couldn’t deny that I wanted to make a decent first impression.

Everyone decided to call it a night when Trey
and Ken announced that they were finished recording the vocals. Ken
promised to have everything pieced together for them to hear by the
next time they came. We all said our goodbyes and Trey and I walked
to his car. He opened the door for me and then went around,
climbing into the driver’s seat.

He started the engine, and then turned to
smile at me for just a second before he put the car in reverse and
backed out of the parking space. We chatted as he drove to my
place, and the next thing I knew he was walking me to the front
door.

“I had a good time.” I turned to face
him.

“I’m glad.”

“Your friends are great,” I added. “It’s
obvious you’re all very close.”

“It’s hard not to be, especially when we
practically live together on the road. Plus, we’ve been in this
band since high school. That’s probably why it still works.”

“It definitely seems to be working.” I said.
I heard his heartbeat shift into high gear and he reached out
suddenly and pulled me close to him. I leaned forward, melting in
his arms. What was it about this mortal man and his ability to make
me feel vulnerable and safe all at once? I couldn’t even pretend
that it made sense but I welcomed the rush of emotion that came
when our lips met. I could definitely see myself getting used to
this. When we pulled apart he was smiling at me.

“Let me make you dinner tomorrow night,” he
stated. “I have the night off.”

I bit my bottom lip. I couldn’t deny that I
wanted to see him again. “You cook?” I was stalling now.

“Don’t sound so surprised. Does seven
work?”

There was no denying that smile. It was
another moment of weakness. I’d been having a lot of those lately.
“Make it eight and text me directions to your place.”

“I could pick you up,” he offered.

“And take the cook out of the kitchen? No
way,” I said with a grin. I’d relinquished about as much control in
one night as any girl could handle.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, then.”

I nodded and he leaned closer once more,
kissing my cheek softly. Then he turned and walked away. I watched
him until he reached his car and looked up to smile at me one more
time. I smiled back and then let myself inside the house. I dropped
my purse on the coffee table and sat down, opening up my laptop. I
had so many questions. A general search sounded like a good place
to start. I pulled up Google and typed in Catalyst. There were a
little over two million results, but the one at the top claimed to
be an official site so I clicked on it. I was redirected to a page
that displayed the band’s logo in large letters at the top. There
was a great picture of the guys with Trey front and center. Below
that was an embedded video. I clicked play and was surprised to
find that the video was a recent one of Trey and O’Shea in the live
room and Ken’s studio previewing a new song for the fans. Then I
was watching Chase as he sat at the drum kit, showing the camera a
new app. he’d gotten on his phone that turned it into a little
finger drum set.

I laughed softly and then gazed at the links
on the page; videos, photos, band bio, music, touring, fan club and
merchandise. In the band biography, I found the names of all the
members: Trey Decker, Jonas Haskins, O’Shea Rushing, and Chase
Norton. There was a small paragraph about each of the guys along
with a picture. Next I clicked on the fan club and saw that a small
annual fee was required for membership, but exclusive access to
videos, chats, and blogs from the band members could only be found
in the fan club. The fee wasn’t a big deal. I paid with my debit
card and within a few minutes I was an official Catalyst fan club
member. I hadn’t been a member of a fan club since high school. It
was kind of strange to be doing it now. I logged in with my new
username and password and began browsing the site. Just as I had
suspected, there was a wealth of information. Fans were discussing
stuff in the forums and on the chat, including which band members
were single or who the last girl they’d been seen with was.

Apparently, Trey had been available for a
while. So the source for “Sweet Disguise” hadn’t been a recent
heartbreak. I guessed that was good news. I went into the photo
gallery and found page after page of pictures. Some were official,
and others had just been uploaded by fans. There was even a shot
all four band members showing off their matching Catalyst
tattoos.

I spent a few minutes wandering around the
pages on the fan club before I went back out to the main page. I
clicked on the music section and pictures of two different albums
came up. The first was titled Absence Of The Vinyl and the second
one I recognized from the photo in Ken’s album as Recycled Coma.
Below each album cover was a prospective track list, with the
option to click on individual songs to hear the track.

I saw “Filtered Ache” listed as track three
on Recycled Coma and I clicked on it. The familiar song began to
play through my laptop speakers and I smiled in disbelief. It only
took a moment to search and purchase both of the Catalyst albums. I
plugged in my iPod to update it and went into the kitchen while I
waited. I opened the small refrigerator at the bottom of the pantry
and pulled out a bottle of Vidic Vineyard blood-laced wine. After
the insane day I’d had, I needed a jolt of blood. I opened the
bottle and poured some of the rich, red liquid into a wine glass
before settling down on the couch in front of my laptop again. My
iPod was still synching so I took a sip and relished the explosive
tastes on my tongue.

My mind immediately went back to the kiss, er
– make that kisses –I’d shared with Trey today. I hadn’t known
something so incredible could exist, much less with a human. Sure,
there had been times when vampires had tried to date humans,
although it didn’t happen often. Most vampires consider themselves
to be above humans and would never bother. Anyway, the point is
that relationships between vampires and humans just never work out,
for obvious reasons. For one, the vampire almost always finds
drinking from the said human impossible to resist at one point or
another. Then the said human would begin to develop the instinctual
aversion toward the vampire and things would fall apart. If I’d
still been human, just thinking about all of it would have given me
a headache already. But seeing a particular human whenever life
would permit was something I was going to risk.

When my iPod finished synching, I unplugged
it and sat it in my purse. I drained the rest of my wine/blood and
went into the kitchen, rinsing out the glass. I leaned against the
countertop for a moment, trying to decide what to do with myself
for the rest of the evening. After a moment’s debate, I grabbed my
keys and purse and left for The Waking Moon to catch up on some
work. I hadn’t checked in with Kacie in a few days but I was glad
to see there were a few sales receipts waiting for me on the back
desk. I shuffled through them as I walked through the gallery area,
noting which paintings Kacie had pulled from the wall because they
had sold.

I went up into my loft, connected my iPod to
the dock and set it to play through Recycled Coma. It was strangely
comforting and inspirational to have Trey’s now familiar voice
floating around the room while I worked. I spent a few minutes
appreciating the sound of his voice while I decided what kind of an
image I wanted to project on to the canvas and then set to work
doing it.