Blood and Guitars (31 page)

I heard her call from out front. “Come here,
I could use your help for a second.”

I rounded the corner and found her standing
in the middle of the showroom. “What’s up?” I asked, unable to read
the look on her face. I was about to reach out with my power,
something I didn’t do with Kacie often, but then I heard it.

The sound stopped me in my tracks. I’d have
known it anywhere; a familiar heartbeat that I recognized only too
well. I forced my feet forward and reached the stairway to the
loft. Trey was sitting there on a step wearing a vintage superhero
t-shirt, his hair perfectly tousled, and holding his favorite
acoustic guitar.

“I know you told me not to come around
anymore,” Trey said in a hurry. “Please just hear me out.” He got
to his feet, his intense blue eyes pleading with me.

“Give him a chance,” Kacie said, elbowing me
softly.

“And to think I trusted you once,” I said to
her.

Kacie smiled while I glared at her. “It’s
getting late and I’m going to go now so you kids can kiss and make
up.” And with that she was out the back door.

Trey’s posture shifted into that confident,
relaxed air I’d observed so many times before as he lowered himself
back down onto the steps. He began strumming his guitar, which
wasn’t really what I’d expected, even though he’d obviously brought
it for a reason.

He began to play a haunting melody, but the
thought of having to stand there while he sang about how I’d tore
his heart into pieces wasn’t something I could handle tonight. I
opened my mouth to interrupt but he started talking without
hesitation. “I don’t know why I’ve never played this one for you
before now. I guess it scared me to let you know just how affected
I was the night you walked into my life.”

I felt the muscles in my face soften as he
began to sing the first verse, the sound of his voice echoing off
the walls. It wasn’t something I’d ever expected to hear again. I
waited in silence, taking in every word.

“It used to be that I would dream

Of things that I can now call mine

Successes are a funny thing

There’s always something else to find

“What good is all the fortune found

With no one here to share

My heart drums a familiar sound

A pain I cannot bear.”

Trey paused just long enough to look up at
me. My breath caught in my throat and then his fingers were moving
over the guitar strings again, his voice stronger as he sang the
chorus.

“I spend my days

Waiting for the night

The hours pass with fading light

She’s a poison; I’m addicted

To the sweet and secret darkness

“My nights are hers

My dreams are not my own

Without a word she speaks to me alone

She’s my poison; midnight poison

I’m afraid that it’s too late for me

“Run away, at least you’ll say you tried

I’ve said it once if not a thousand times

This perfect beauty in my mind

Is something that I long to find.”

He sang the chorus again, sending shivers
down my spine. He didn’t know my secret, but he was more intuitive
than I’d given him credit for. How had I ever managed to walk away
from him? How could I do it again?

“Never have I seen her face

Waiting for a single trace of you

My hope is desperate

“I spend my days

Waiting for the night

The hours pass with fading light

She’s a poison; I’m addicted to the sweet

Fatality of …

“My nights are hers

My dreams are not my own

Without a word she speaks but I’m alone

She’s my poison; midnight poison

I’m afraid that it’s too late for me.”

The song was passionate, cryptic. It was hard
to believe he had written this just after we’d met. It hadn’t been
that long ago, but so much had happened since that night. When the
song ended, Trey put the guitar aside and slowly got to his feet,
descending down the last few steps cautiously like I was a wild
animal he had to be careful around. There was more truth to that
than he knew.

“I wrote that song about you,” Trey said,
standing before me now. “I’m not even sure I realized it at the
time, but I’d been having major writer’s block, and these dreams
about a woman whose face I could never see. Then I met you, and her
face sort of filled in and the dreams stopped. I wrote it just
after we met at Carlie’s and I realized shortly after that my
mystery woman was you.”

“Trey-”

Trey sighed and caught my wrist in his hand.
He pulled my palm to his chest, holding it tightly over his racing
heart. The gesture was so familiar and sweet it was almost painful.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not in love with me,” he
said. I gazed into his eyes for the space of two heartbeats and
then looked away. He took my silence for an answer and lifted my
chin gently, forcing me to meet his gaze again. “I know something’s
going on that you haven’t told me. It might even be something big,
but I also know that you don’t want things between us to be over
any more than I do. We’re good together. So just tell me whatever
it is that’s keeping us apart so we can face it. Chaos is my way of
life, you know that. Give me a chance.”

I hadn’t had a plan as I’d driven to The
Waking Moon that night. I hadn’t known what to do about Trey, or
anything else for that matter, but at that instant, as I looked
into Trey’s eyes, I understood what I had to do. There was nothing
left in me but the truth. Trey’s heart hammered against my palm and
I forced myself to meet his gaze.

“You’re right,” I said, before I could change
my mind. “Walk with me?”

Trey took a quick breath like he wasn’t sure
he’d heard me right. Then he lowered my hand from his chest,
entwining his fingers in mine and squeezing a little tighter than
usual. “Lead the way.”

There was no safe place to go. Not really.
But being outside gave me a better view of our surroundings and as
a result made me more aware of the night. That was good,
considering I didn’t want our conversation to be overheard. We
walked across the street to the little park and the pond. Trey was
silent, apparently determined to let me to speak first. I chose to
stay out of his head. If I was going to come clean, I wanted him to
be able to decide for himself what to think of me. Knowing his
thoughts would give me an unfair advantage. Besides, I’d forced my
way into his mind once, and it had been one of the worst nights of
my life. I wasn’t about to go there again.

We walked to a small dock that overlooked the
pond. The breeze blew gently, adding a sense of normalcy to a
situation that was anything but. I took a deep breath and said,
“You were right, you know … about me keeping something from you.”
His head jerked up and he gazed at me, but he still didn’t speak,
waiting for me to continue. “But I wasn’t lying about the danger
I’ve put you in. I wouldn’t be telling you this at all if I didn’t
know for sure now that it’s too late for me to try and pull you
away from it.”

Trey had turned to face me now, leaning
against the railing. He pulled me closer, and I couldn’t imagine
how he wasn’t looking at me with accusations in his eyes. He seemed
concerned, but not overly so. It was like he was expecting me to
come out with some silly little scandal that could be made to
disappear with the right amount of money.

I took a deep breath and began. “I’ll
understand if you never want to see me again. But there’s no
avoiding this now. I just want you to know that it’s all been real
for me. My feelings for you are not a lie.”

“Just tell me.” His voice was barely above a
whisper, but it rang loud and clear to my ears. “Whatever it is …
you can tell me.”

I turned away from him, looking out over the
water and leaning against the wooden railing. The moon shone in the
distant sky, omniscient among the wisps of clouds, and I was
reassured in my decision. I found my nerve and did the only thing I
knew would convince him of my true nature. The thing I’d fought
against every time Trey had kissed me. I unsheathed my fangs and my
already impeccable eyesight became even sharper as my eyes took on
their natural luminescence, almost glowing compared to the duller
version that I walked around with most of the time. Trey put an arm
around my shoulders. This was it. I was going to tell him
everything. From this point forward, there would be no turning
back.

Trey’s hand cupped my chin and I turned to
face him. My mouth was open, my fangs exposed, my eyes glowing a
faint poison green. A soft gasp escaped Trey’s lips and he
flinched, pulling his hand away reflexively.

“Trey….” But what could I say? How could I
explain any of this to him? As he stared at me, at my true form, I
desperately wished for him to understand. I hadn’t needed anything
from anyone in a long time, but there was no denying how much I
needed Trey to understand me at that moment. His eyes narrowed and
instead of backing up like I expected, he stepped toward me again.
“I-”

“Shh…” He raised a finger to my lips to
silence me. Then he stared at me brazenly, studying all the details
of my face with wonder in his eyes. I was shocked into silence as I
waited for him to say something … anything. He took his time,
probably just as lost for words as I was. He trailed his fingers
down my cheek, pausing to run his thumb over one of my fangs. After
a moment his heartbeat slowed and his breathing returned to normal.
“This … this is like a really weird dream.” He spoke slowly, his
eyes never leaving my face. “But if you’re in it too, well, I guess
I’ll take what I can get.”

“This isn’t a dream. The danger I spoke of is
real.”

He closed his hands around mine as he
searched my eyes. “Just tell me one thing. Are you still the woman
I fell in love with?”

I met his gaze and nodded. “I’ve lied to you
about a lot of things, but my feelings for you are the only truth I
have left.”

Trey’s chest heaved as he took a quick, shaky
breath of air, then suddenly his arms were around me, pulling me
tightly to his chest. He held me like he was never going to let go.
I hoped he wouldn’t. He pulled back enough to gaze at me again,
brushing a strand of hair away from my face.

“Look at you,” he breathed. “I don’t even
know what to say….” He traced my lips with his fingers again.
“You’re breathtaking.”

I choked on a laugh, disbelieving, and he
smiled at me. I had missed that lazy half-smile more than words
could express. I couldn’t believe he was still standing here with
me, somehow unafraid.

But the worst part wasn’t over yet.

“I know this is a lot to take in for one
night,” I said. “But this is really only half the problem. I have a
lot to tell you.”

His eyes darkened and for the first time I
thought he might be starting to grasp the gravity of our situation.
He nodded and pulled me away from the dock. I walked with him to a
spot under a tree where we sat on the grass. I didn’t know what
else to do but start at the beginning. I explained to him that I’d
been hunting the night we’d met at Carlie’s, and that I’d been
fascinated with him and changed my mind about drinking from him
almost immediately. I’d stopped there to explain that I wasn’t a
killer. That I was able to feed without harming the donor, and then
I continued, saying that I hadn’t expected to ever see him again
and then he’d just shown up at The Waking Moon later and changed
everything.

“Wait a minute,” he interrupted. “Your friend
Mark … the doctor … is he…?”

“Mark is a vampire. Yes.”

Trey ran his fingers through his messy hair
and then nodded for me to continue. I told him how I’d been
relieved to have a legitimate reason to keep seeing him when
Celebrity Dent had offered me a job as the album artist. I was
taking a big risk by being so close to him, but I thought it would
protect us both if I was working for the band. I explained all the
important points, including how I’d left him after the VMA’s to
attend a special ritual with others of my kind. I briefly explained
about the Synod and how they’d led the ritual that night. He didn’t
say much as I spoke, but I could read his reactions in the way his
heart sped up and slowed down. I paused a moment to let him think
through everything so far.

“The men who came for you at the restaurant,”
he said, thinking ahead of the story. “They were vampires.” It was
more of a statement than a question. “That’s the night everything
changed. Who were they?”

“They were Emissary,” I said. “They work
directly under the Synod. The Elders of the Synod were waiting
outside for me in a car.”

“What did they want?” He leaned forward,
anxious.

“They gave me those pictures you saw at my
house last night and forbid me from continuing our
relationship.”

He furrowed his brow and entwined his fingers
in mine. “Huh. Well, that explains the sudden breakup.”

“I was just trying to protect you,” I
explained. “I convinced them that you didn’t know what I was, and
they agreed to leave you alone as long as I obeyed.”

“What changed?” His heart was thumping again
in anticipation. “What made you decide to come clean tonight, after
everything?” I hesitated, knowing this was the part he might not be
able to forgive me for.

“I found something out last night,” I began.
“We have a club that caters to our kind across town. That’s where I
went after I left you at my place. I found out that someone had
been putting up pictures of us all over the club, and who knows
where else. A lot of the vampires are angry that I let a human get
so close to our world. They don’t care what you know … they see you
as a threat.”