Blood and Guitars (39 page)

“I’ll be right back,” she said quickly. I
didn’t have time to ask where she was going before she started
across the grass.

“Monday works for me,” Ken said, drawing my
attention back to the conversation.

“Okay,” I said, a little distracted. “Monday
it is.”

I watched as Aurora approached a man in an
expensive suit who was leaning against a tree fifty yards away. I
didn’t recognize him at all. At that distance I couldn’t tell what
she was saying to him, but she didn’t look happy to see him.

“Hey,” I said to Ken and the guys. “I … I
gotta go. I’ll catch you all at the studio Monday, okay?” Then I
turned and headed in the same direction Aurora had gone. As I drew
near I noticed the symbol sewn into the breast pocket of the
stranger’s suit jacket. It was the same symbol the men who had come
to the restaurant with the Synod had been wearing the night they’d
taken Aurora with them. This man – er, vampire – was obviously part
of the Emissary.

“Is there a problem?” I asked as I stepped up
to Aurora’s side.

“If there were,” the vampire said with an
easy smile, never taking his eyes off Aurora. “What makes you think
a human could solve it?”

I opened my mouth to respond but Aurora
interrupted by touching my arm and saying, “No. Damir was just
leaving.”

The vampire named Damir looked surprised.
“Was I?” Aurora looked at him expectantly. “Perhaps we should ask
your pet here what he thinks of my offer,” Damir said, turning to
look at me for the first time.

“What offer?” My heart shifted anxiously into
high gear, which only pissed me off because I knew he could hear
it.

Damir looked truly amused as he raised an
eyebrow at Aurora. “You haven’t told him.”

“Told me what?” I asked, my voice rising a
little more than I intended.

“Nothing,” Aurora insisted as she grabbed my
arm and turned away, pulling me with her.

“My offer to guarantee your safety, human,”
said Damir from behind.

Aurora’s footsteps paused and I stopped with
her. I furrowed my brow in confusion as she turned slowly to face
me. I wasn’t expecting the flash of pain I saw in her green
eyes.

“What offer?” I asked again, my voice just
above a whisper.

Aurora’s tortured eyes didn’t leave mine, but
she didn’t answer. I touched her face, hating that she looked so
miserable.

“It’s quite simple, actually,” Damir added,
instantly appearing at my side. “I’ve promised Aurora that I can
guarantee your safety and the safety of the other humans you’re so
attached to, though I can’t imagine why.”

I looked at him incredulously. My intuition
was screaming at me that something was seriously wrong. “What’s the
catch?”

Damir gave me a wry smile and nodded toward
Aurora. She was staring at the ground but forced herself to look up
and meet my gaze.

“Me,” she said. “I’m the catch.”

Before my mind could even process what she
was telling me, Damir was talking again.

“You see,” he began. “It’s really best that a
vampire with Aurora’s talents align herself with someone in a
position of power. I’m sure she’s enjoyed this little fling with
you, but can you really expect her to spend eternity with someone
who wants to spend the rest of his life living out a childish rock
star fantasy? You’ll get your immortality. That is what you want,
after all. And you won’t have to worry about putting any more of
your friends in the ground.” He gestured toward the small crowd
still standing around Wes’s casket.

I took one look at Aurora and immediately
understood the anguish that was written all over her perfectly
beautiful face. I squeezed her hand and without letting go, turned
to face Damir. “You know, for a vampire, you really suck at the
mind-reading thing. You don’t know the first thing about what I
want.”

Damir’s stony expression faltered for only an
instant and then it hardened again. “You’re going to regret this,”
he said calmly.

I couldn’t see any reason to stick around and
let the vampire threaten us so I led Aurora toward my car. I opened
the passenger door for her, closing it after she climbed inside. I
glanced up and saw that Damir was walking toward a limo as I
climbed inside the driver’s seat.

The drive to my house was a short one, but
Aurora’s silence as she stared out the side window exaggerated
every mile so that it felt like ten. I didn’t try to get her to
speak. I wasn’t sure what I wanted her to say. I needed some time
to think before we talked about what had just happened. I thought
maybe she felt the same way.

When we got to the house, I unlocked the
front door and held it for Aurora who walked in and went straight
to the living room. I closed the door behind me and found her
pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. Feeling like I was
suffocating, I loosened my tie and pulled it off, draping it over
the back of the couch. Then I took my suit coat off and undid the
top buttons of my white dress shirt. I couldn’t deal with the
silence any longer. I needed answers.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Aurora sighed heavily and turned to face me.
“What was I supposed to say? That the head of the Emissary was
trying to blackmail me into being with him by promising to protect
you?”

“That’s a start. I thought we weren’t keeping
things from each other.”

She shook her head. “It’s not that
simple.”

“When did this happen?” I asked.

She pulled out her cell phone and pushed a
few buttons before handing it to me. I read a text message from
Damir, and saw that it was dated the night before Wes had been
killed. The night Aurora had told me the truth about who she
was.

“Look, I get it,” I said. “The only reason
you wouldn’t tell me about this is because you were tempted to
accept his offer. The only part I’m not sure about is why.”

She looked at me incredulously. “What do you
mean?”

“This Damir guy, he’s right.” The words
burned as they left my mouth. “If you were to choose him, nothing
about your life would have to change. You could stay here in
Clearwater and paint at The Waking Moon every night. You’d have a
powerful vampire by your side, especially if he’s the head of the
Emissary as you say. If you’re having second thoughts about us …
about me –”

“No.” Aurora shook her head. “It’s not that
at all. You’re the only one who makes me feel alive. I love you.” I
breathed easier at hearing her declaration and waited for her to
continue. She stepped closer to me, her hand cupping my face
softly. “That’s why I’d never be able to forgive myself if
something ever happened to you.”

“If this is about keeping me safe, you can
just rule out this Damir guy right now,” I said. But the look on
her face told me she still wasn’t convinced. “I’m still alive,
aren’t I?”

“I want nothing more than to spend forever
with you,” she said. “I want to watch you make your music. I want
to go on tour with you and know that it’s me your singing about
every night. I want to teach you everything I know about being a
vampire so you can be my eternal companion. Most of all, I want to
love you like I didn’t think I was capable of doing, but doing what
I wanted is what got us into this mess to begin with.” She sighed
and dropped her hand. “Can you look me in the eye and tell me that
there wasn’t some small part of you who thought for just a moment
that Damir might have the answer to all the problems I’ve created
for you?”

I pulled her hand to my chest where it slid
just inside the open material of my shirt, resting flat against my
racing heart. “Not the smallest part of me,” I insisted, willing
her to hear the truth in my words, to read it in the way my heart
ached with every beat against her palm. “Not for a second.”

A slow smile spread across Aurora’s lips and
she melted into my arms. I sighed in relief and held her close to
me, breathing her in.

“Promise me you’re not going to do anything
crazy,” I said to her. “We’ll get through this together.”

“I promise.” Then she rose onto her toes and
kissed me like she’d never had a reason to pull back.

I sat on the floor, leaning against the
half-wall in the loft of The Waking Moon as I strummed my acoustic
guitar. Aurora was only a few feet away, putting the finishing
touches on the painting that would soon be known all over the world
as the cover of Catalyst’s new album. The deadline to turn in the
artwork was next week but the painting would need several days to
dry, so Aurora and I had agreed to spend the night here until it
was completed. As much as everything had changed recently, it was
comforting to do something as familiar as playing my guitar while
Aurora worked. It was something I’d made a habit of ever since we’d
started dating. I’d been biting my tongue for the last two hours,
not wanting to distract her from her work. But my head was swirling
with questions; things I still didn’t understand about Aurora’s
world. It was even coming out in my music. I’d just written a new
song called “You Only Live Twice” as a way of dealing with the very
near, very uncertain future ahead of me.

“One of your strings is out of tune,” Aurora
said nonchalantly, peering at me over the canvas on her easel.

I paused in my strumming. “You’re serious?”
She smiled, nodding. “What are you, a human tuner now?”

She gave me a sly grin. “Hardly human.”

I rolled my eyes at her in disbelief and
fished my cell phone from my pocket. I opened the guitar tuner app.
I had and found that, sure enough, the D string was flat. I’d
always considered myself to have a good ear, but I hadn’t noticed
that the string was a little out of tune when I’d sat down to
play.

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but its
driving me crazy.” She grinned at me and added, “Soon you won’t
need a tuner at all.”

I made a slight adjustment to the string
while I considered her words. “I guess vampire hearing will come in
handy in my line of business,” I mused.

“You have no idea.” Aurora set her paint
brush down and looked toward the stairway that led down into the
rest of the studio where her paintings were displayed and sold.
“Speaking of fantastic hearing, we’re not alone.”

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Mark.”

My eyebrows shot up. I wasn’t sure how to
react. I’d only met the vampire doctor once, and as far as I could
tell, he hadn’t liked me much. Of course, that had probably been
because Aurora was offering to give me private painting lessons and
it was obvious -even to my dull human instincts- that Mark had a
thing for Aurora.

“Not anymore.” Aurora said as she walked
toward me. “I think Mark’s got himself a girlfriend now.”

I furrowed my brow at her. I still wasn’t
used to the fact that she could read my mind. She smiled at me
apologetically.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean-”

I set my guitar down next to me. “Don’t worry
about it. I’ll get even with you later.”

She bit her bottom lip and said, “I guess I’d
better see what he wants.” I nodded, perfectly content to stay out
of sight. “Don’t bother. He already knows you’re here,” she added.
“He can smell you from outside.”

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Right.”
Aurora disappeared down the steps to my left but I didn’t budge as
I heard the back door open and close.

“Mark,” Aurora said, greeting him.

“Tell me it’s not true,” Mark said. Wow, this
guy cut straight to the chase. “You’re not seriously considering
making him one of us?”

It seemed word of our plan was spreading. I
guessed it was a good thing. The quicker the vampire community
learned of Aurora’s intentions to make me one of them, the better
my chances of surviving until she could do it.

“It’s true.” Aurora said without
pretense.

I heard the other vampire sigh. He was silent
for a moment, and I imagined his piercing eyes watching me through
the half-wall that hid me from view. Of course, I was sure even
vampires couldn’t do that. I’d obviously read too many comics as a
kid, but surely x-ray vision was reserved for Superman.

“Look,” Mark began. “I’m not here to tell you
what to do. I’ve learned my lesson with that, but are you certain
that forcing this human to become one of us is a wise move?”

I took a deep breath and got to my feet,
walking determinedly down the stairs. Neither vampire looked up at
my approach, but Aurora’s face softened. Both their eyes had that
incandescent quality that was hard to describe, and their fangs
were in plain sight. I imagined it was only natural for Aurora to
take on her true form when around other vampires.

“I want this,” I declared, stepping up to
take Aurora’s hand. “I may not understand everything about your
world yet, but I’d do anything to be with her.”

Mark fixed his penetrating eyes on me, his
gaze so intense that I had to will myself not to look away. He
studied me a moment and then to my surprise said, “Now that’s a
sentiment I can understand.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was
holding and gave him a small nod. He knew exactly what I was
talking about. New girlfriend or not, I got the feeling he would
still do anything for Aurora.

“Thank you, Mark,” Aurora said. “For looking
out for me.”

Mark shrugged. “I know we haven’t been as
close lately, but I’m still your friend. Our lives may be taking us
down different paths, but that doesn’t have to change.” Then he
gave Aurora a friendly kiss on the cheek and walked back out into
the night without another word.

Aurora seemed almost as relieved as I was
that the encounter hadn’t ended in a confrontation. She took a deep
breath and turned to me. When she spoke again, her fangs were no
longer visible. “Come on. The painting is finished and I want to
see what you think of it.”