Blood and Guitars (21 page)

“Miss me already?” she asked when she
answered.

“You know me too well,” I said with a laugh.
“Hey, Wes agreed to come by The Waking Moon tomorrow morning and
see your work.”

“Really? Tomorrow?” I couldn’t tell if she
was nervous or just caught off guard.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” I promised. “Just bring
the stuff you showed the guys tonight. He’ll love it. He’ll love
you.”

“If you say so,” she said, trying to sound
optimistic.

“I’ll meet you there the morning. Wes and his
girlfriend will be there at eight.”

“I’ll be ready.”

“See you in the morning.” I was suddenly glad
Aurora couldn’t see the idiotic grin on my face as I hung up.

I should have gone to bed at some point
during the night but I’m wired to be alert when the moon is out, so
I worked to perfect the drawings I’d done at the studio. I spent
hours working on my sketches of Trey and his band mates, adding
crazy backgrounds to each of them, giving them a surreal effect
worthy of an album jacket.

Then I did an entirely new sketch of the
group. I drew a close up of a guitar, or at least the main body of
one. Then I added drops of rain falling onto it. Within each drop
of rain and the splashes of water that ricocheted off the guitar
were images of the different guys. Their faces were stretched and
distorted within the drops of water but not beyond recognition. Six
a.m. rolled around entirely too fast and I scrambled to get
showered and dressed for the day. Then I put my sketches in the
portfolio and loaded them in the car to drive to The Waking Moon. I
paced around the front of the studio for a while, rearranging
things to make sure that Wes would get the best first impression of
my work possible. I set out an easel with the painting I’d done of
Trey while he’d been playing his guitar in my loft the other night,
hoping it would give Wes a good idea of how I could represent Trey
and the other guys on canvas.

Trey showed up at half past seven with a box
of assorted Italian pastries and four coffees. He must have read
the anticipation on my face because he set everything down and
wrapped his arms around me. “Don’t tell me you’ve been obsessing
all night about this,” he said with a chuckle.

“Why would you think that?”

“I know you too well.” He kissed the top of
my head and then released me. “And you worry too much.”

“There are a lot of starving artists in the
world.” I took a coffee and sipped it. “There’s a reason I’m not
one of them.”

“Because you’re amazing.” Trey said.

“And because I obsess,” I added with a wry
smile. I opened my sketchpad and showed him the new drawing I’d
done last night.

“This is me learning to shut up,” he said
with a grin as he admired the drawing.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

I set the sketchpad aside and Trey offered me
the box of pastries. We snacked for a few minutes and Trey debated
about which painting hanging on display Wes would like most. I
sensed Wes a moment before he came into view through the large
front windows.

“They’re here,” Trey announced unnecessarily
as Wes pulled the front door open and held it for a woman I assumed
was Lisa, the girlfriend Trey had mentioned. “Hey, you found the
place,” Trey said as he and Wes bumped fists.

“You gave me decent directions for once,” Wes
said, removing his sunglasses.

Trey handled the introductions and I shook
both of their hands.

“You really did all these?” Wes said to me,
gesturing with a sweep of his hand to all the paintings on
display.

“And more,” I said. “It’s how I make a
living.”

Wes smiled as he noticed the painting I’d
done of Trey for the first time. He stepped forward to get a better
look and Lisa followed. Trey caught my eye and winked at me.

“This is amazing,” Lisa said as she looked
over her shoulder at me.

Had it been dark out, I’d have been reading
Wes’s mind already. His silence was deafening as he walked around
the showroom and studied my work. Lisa was more talkative, which
you would have thought would help me relax some.

“I always wanted to take an art class,” Lisa
said to Trey and I. “It seems like it would be good for the soul to
be able to express yourself that way.”

“Aurora gave me my first lesson,” Trey
added.

“I bet that was entertaining,” she said with
a small laugh. “What did you paint? A guitar?”

Trey sipped his coffee to buy a few seconds
and then shrugged at Lisa. “Maybe.”

Lisa rolled her eyes at him but she was
smiling. The banter between them was evidence that they’d spent
enough time around each other for Lisa to feel comfortable giving
Trey a hard time. It was just one more piece of the puzzle, an
explanation as to how Trey and his band mates managed to stay so
grounded despite their successes.

Finally, Wes tore himself away from my
paintings and approached us. A hint of a smile was playing on his
lips. “Well, you certainly have the talent for the job,” he said to
me. “I guess the real question is can you stand to spend that much
time with Trey and the other guys?”

“It’s a rough job, as you know,” I said. “But
someone’s got to do it.”

“At least then you’d be getting paid to put
up with this one,” Lisa said, gesturing at Trey with a slight jerk
of her head.

“I am sitting right here,” Trey reminded her.
Then he added, “Aurora is perfect for the job. The fact that I get
to be the subject of her art is just a bonus.”

“For who?” Wes teased. Trey ignored him,
taking a bite from his pastry and chewing happily. Wes turned to me
and said, “Trey mentioned you have some sketches you did at the
studio?” I pulled out my sketch pad and handed it to him, feeling a
little more relaxed now as he flipped through the drawings. “I know
the guys didn’t sit still and pose while you did these,” Wes said.
“Which only makes it all the more incredible that you managed
pieces of this quality. I don’t know how you pulled it off, but I’m
glad you did. I’ll talk to the guys at Celebrity Dent. This should
be one of the easier pitches I’ve made on the band’s behalf.”

“Thanks,” I told him sincerely. “Take the
sketch book with you. Hopefully my work will speak for itself.”

Trey was munching on a second pastry, and he
offered the box to Wes and passed Lisa and Wes both a coffee.

“I’ve driven past this place before,” Lisa
said. “I always wondered what might be inside. Any special reason
you chose the name?”

“It’s one of the names given to the full moon
in April,” I explained. “That and it just sounded better than Egg
Moon or Fishing Moon.”

Trey chuckled. “No argument there.”

Wes took a sip of coffee and said, “Do you
have any ideas in mind for painting the guys?”

“A few,” I assured him. “I want to really
capture what makes each of them unique in their individual
paintings, because I think those qualities are what make them so
strong when they come together.” I was somewhat surprised once the
words had left my mouth. It was quite a contrast to my emotionally
distant nature, but I’d been surprising myself a lot lately. In
true Trey fashion, he pretended to wipe invisible tears from his
eyes. I glanced at him just long enough to roll my eyes at his
theatrics and then continued. “I’ll add my own little strange twist
to each piece, but that sort of thing just comes as I go.”

“Well, I think it will be great to have
someone who’s actually spending time with the guys do the artwork.
It’s a good idea all around.”

After some more small talk, Wes and Lisa
thanked us for the goodies and left to go about the rest of their
day.

“You’ve got it,” Trey said confidently.

“Do you think?” I asked, although I had a
feeling he was right. I was more excited about the prospect of
being able to work for the band than I’d realized until that
moment. If everything went as planned, I’d have a legitimate
business agreement involving Trey that would help me justify all
the time we were spending together.

I almost panicked when I found out that the
VMA’s and the Lunar Eclipse ritual with the Synod were happening on
the same night. Normally I would have freaked, but apparently
Trey’s carefree attitude had worn off on me some during all the
time we’d been spending together. Okay, so maybe I hadn’t
completely caught on to the whole happy-go-lucky thing, but the
fact that I was determined to make it to both events ought to count
for something. Besides, I could never have cancelled on Trey. If it
were that easy, I’d have been able to turn him down to begin with.
But the last thing I’d wanted was to cause him pain, and it wasn’t
hard to see how much he was looking forward to taking me along with
him to the award show.

Hence the overscheduled evening I had ahead
of me. And the day was still young. I’d been careful not to let
Antonio or Mark know that I had other plans that evening, since
that would have been more than suspicious. Antonio had been pretty
easy in that area, since I’d only spoken to him on the phone since
the last full moon, but Mark had been a different story. I’d told
him a half-truth by letting him know that I’d been hired to do some
work for a record label, but I hadn’t mentioned that it was for
Trey’s album, or that Trey was even a musician. In fact, Mark had
no idea that the human we’d gotten into a huge fight about was
still in my life at all. I just had to keep it that way.

The last week and a half had rushed by in a
blur of afternoons spent at the recording studio. Wes had called me
the morning after our meeting at The Waking Moon and given me the
good news. I’d signed paperwork with him that night at Trey’s, and
since then I’d been under official contract with the recording
label to do the artwork for Catalyst’s new record. I’d been a
regular at the studio each night, bringing along my easel, blank
canvases, paints, and brushes. I usually just picked a spot nearby,
depending on what room the guys were playing in, and painted away
while they worked on songs. On Trey’s nights off, he spent time
writing songs at The Waking Moon, watching me paint and
occasionally joining in. The album was almost finished now. The
guys had recorded eighteen songs for it. Soon they would just be
narrowing it down to the best ones for the album.

I had gone shopping for a dress to wear to
the awards show a few days ago. I’d dragged myself out of bed way
too early in the afternoon so I could hit the shops before they
closed. I’d managed to find the perfect dress. I could almost see
the look on Trey’s face already. He was going to love it.

Right now that dress was carefully concealed
in a garment bag and laid out in the backseat of Trey’s Mazda as we
closed the distance between Clearwater and Miami. We’d spent the
better part of the morning heading south on I-75 and I’d been
trying to hide my anxiety about the crazy night ahead of me, but
now that we were nearing our destination I began to relax.

“I can’t wait to get out and stretch my
legs,” Trey complained halfheartedly.

“Shouldn’t you be used to traveling?” I
teased.

“I’m not usually the one driving,” he
muttered. “Plus, I can get up and walk around on the tour bus.”

“We could have flown,” I countered. He’d
offered to get us plane tickets initially, but after we debated the
pros and cons of dealing with airport lines and security we had
decided to make the drive. “But I’m glad we didn’t.” And that was
true. I hadn’t regretted that decision once. I’d had over four
hours of alone time with Trey already today, and I was enjoying
every minute of it. I’d made a point to go out last night and feed.
The last thing I wanted was to be lethargic while trying to pretend
that being out all day wasn’t a big deal. Hopefully the feeding
combined with a glass of blood/wine I downed before leaving today
would help in that area. Plus, I hadn’t forgotten that I was going
to be in a large venue surrounded by mostly humans tonight and I
didn’t want to be tempted in the slightest. Tonight was Trey’s
night, or at least it was until midnight. Then, I would have to get
away for the Lunar Eclipse ritual, and for that I had a plan.

Trey reached over to squeeze my hand
gently.

“Where’s Cowboy?” I realized that he’d have
had to leave his dog with someone to make an overnight trip like
this.

“Jonas’s sister took him for me. She spoils
him rotten so he loves her.”

I nodded and tried to remember what life had
been like back in the days when I’d last had a pet. Of course, I’d
been human in those days. Sometimes that part of my life seemed a
century away, but at times like this when I was with Trey and
things were almost normal I remembered it clearly. That is, if you
consider my staying up all moon- forsaken day to attend a
high-profile pop culture event with a ridiculously famous human
normal.

When we arrived at the hotel, Trey arranged
to have our things taken up to the room and then declared that it
was time for some lunch.

“I thought you might feel that way,” I told
him as he took my hand and guided me in the direction of the
hotel’s restaurant. “Anyone within a mile radius could have heard
your stomach growling the last half-hour of the drive.”

“That bad, huh.” He chuckled, patting his
stomach. Before we entered the restaurant Trey got a text from
O’Shea. He and Jonas had just arrived at the hotel a few minutes
behind us.

“They might as well join us for lunch then,”
I suggested.

When Trey looked at me his face seemed
pleasantly surprised at the idea. “Are … are you sure? I mean-”

“Of course I’m sure,” I said. “Besides,
O’Shea has promised to divulge a bunch of embarrassing stories
about you. Now is as good a time as ever to cash in on that.”