Silverthorn (2 page)

The crowd jumped up and down as the vamps got the attention of the two beefy security guards that stood in the four-foot pocket where a metal barrier separated the crowd from the stage. When the guards stepped within one foot of either vampire, the vamps snapped the guards’ necks with little effort, and both security men slumped to the concrete.

There went my theory that the vamps wouldn’t strike in public. That set me on edge. They wouldn’t knock out a couple security guards just to stand in the front row to scowl at us. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but it seemed like these vamps didn’t mind hurting those who got in their way. It seemed I not only had to protect the band, but perhaps the concertgoers as well. A chill ran through me at the prospect of failing at that task.

With the crowd so into the music, only a handful of people noticed the two security guards go down. At first, they looked stunned, but with everyone hollering and bouncing on their tiptoes, they figured it was an act, part of the show. A few dozen people held up their cell phones, capturing the song we played on video for posterity.

Unhinged, I started into the lyrics, doing my best not to miss a note. All the while, I concentrated on the two vamps in the front row.

They glanced back at their friends, who had just reached the lower level and now hurried through the crowd as elbows slammed into their faces. But they were so determined to slip through each empty space they didn’t even seem to notice. Nevertheless, it became difficult to do so easily with the crowd pushed forward and clamped together. At least they didn’t get violent by pushing and shoving concertgoers.

The vamps five feet away from me spun around toward me. They grinned.

It sent a chill down my spine. What could they gain from storming the stage? Assaulting us would not only reveal their powers, but the police might also try to hunt them down.

If anything, I would have expected them to murder my sister, Alexis, or my niece, Celestina. Killing both of them would allow them to leave the city. Zephora had probably put that decree in place to give witches in our line a chance to mend a tear in our line…and keep the paranormal creatures from roaming the world. That way, our line had the opportunity to round up those with paranormal abilities and vanquish them. Although I’d killed my mother, Zephora had taken residence inside her body, which in a convoluted way, maintained three generations of witches in our line.

Only now, the supernatural creatures were hunting me. Not my sister or my niece.

At this point, Brandon twirled his drumsticks and, as though expecting a rush from the vamps, he flung one toward Kendall at the exact moment she turned toward him. She caught it in one hand and lifted it skyward.

Just as the vamps hurtled the iron railing, I realized that Zephora hadn’t sent her minions after me. Without the capacity to call upon her full strength since it took three days for her soul to sync with Delphine’s body (and only one had passed), she needed Alexis and Celestina to protect her until she regained access to her powers, which she would need if she planned to command the paranormal masses. Therefore, she wouldn’t have launched an attack without the ability to strategize in real time, which potentially meant using her powers.

That meant Darius set them against us without Zephora’s knowledge. I assumed he found it imperative to eliminate the one person who might try to resist Zephora’s efforts, since my sister wasn’t convinced that Zephora’s spirit had slipped into our mother’s body. After all, Alexis had no reason to consider her as anything but the woman she idolized, even if she failed to realize our mother was a demented child abuser who had the same misguided intentions as Zephora.

The two vamps landed on the floor in front of the stage.

Just as I finished a line of lyrics, which would lead into a guitar solo, I ran over and kicked one vamp in the head, pitching him backwards.

He slammed against the railing, pushing it a few feet into the crowd, all of whom jumped back, shocked at the turn of events. But only for a moment. As if thinking this was part of the stage show, they erupted into applause.

With unexpected speed, the second vamp hurled himself onto the stage, darted up to Nolan, and threw a right fist at his face.

Nolan barely managed to back away in time and without hesitation, punched the vamp in the nose, knocking him to the ground.

The crowd whistled and shouted their approval, as though certain that the band had choreographed everything that took place on stage.

In one sleek move, the vampire shook off a dazed expression, regained his balance, and diverted his path toward Kendall.

Seeing him approach her, Kendall tried to raise her left hand to defend herself against an attack, but he slammed into her, pushing them both to the ground, the bass guitar eliciting a thrum of sound.

Kendall squiggled under him. Calling upon adrenaline that built inside her during the show, she somehow scrambled out from under his grasp, swiveled around, and tried to slam the drumstick into his heart, but the vampire tossed her aside before she got the chance. Kendall slid a few feet away.

Over the years, I’d taught Kendall many defensive techniques, not to mention how to remain calm during a fight, but it took continued practice and dedication to defeat a quicker and stronger opponent. I ran over and grabbed the stick. Hooking my foot under the vamp’s ankle, I swept his leg out from under him. I scampered over, lifted the drumstick, and slammed it into the vampire’s heart.

The vamp’s body lay still and then…a barely audible
poof
registered. His body exploded into a cloud of dust that settled onto the ground around her. Zephora’s eternal enchantment had kicked into effect: upon death, every paranormal creature turned to dust to eliminate detection by humanity. I suspected that, having just transformed into a vampire, the man had no idea how to control his newfound abilities, making him both dangerous and prone to both overestimating his own power and underestimating in a fight to the death.

One more wave of excitement ruptured through the crowd. They jumped up and down, looking left and right, eager to catch every moment of the action occurring before them.

Another vamp raced toward Kendall, but Nolan swept in front of her and bashed the vampire in the mouth. His velocity, more than the punch, redirected his path. He spun in the opposite direction…toward me.

I did the only thing that sprang to mind. I slipped the guitar strap off my shoulder, cranked the acoustic behind me, and swung it at the vampire’s head.

The wood crashed against the vamp’s head, surely doing no damage, but with splintered pieces showering across his field of vision, he slowed down, wincing.

Seeing yet one more musician destroying her guitar on stage, only to actually
do
something other than just break a fine instrument, the concertgoers clapped and yelled their approval.

While he regained his wits, I grabbed the neck of the guitar, clamping down on the six strings that shimmied in every direction to keep them from popping me in the eyes. Just as he veered back toward me, I plunged the neck of the guitar into the vamp’s heart.

He arched backwards, grabbed hold of the pike in his chest, and screamed. He fell to his knees and collapsed onto his back. He tried to remove the wood from his heart, but his hands were too slick with blood to dislodge the foreign object. A second later, he released a final breath and lay still. Then his body burst into dust, the result of an enchantment Zephora put into place centuries ago to cover up the death of any paranormal creature so that evidence of magical creatures remained non-existent.

As the residue filtered across me, I realized that the band kept playing. Despite the attack, no one had missed a beat.

In response, the crowd jumped up and down as if trying to catch every snippet of action on stage. With every glance at the audience, I’d noticed that each person seemed entertained, rather than frightened or worried by what took place. They seriously had no idea that this was not part of our stage show. With the exception of top notch heavy metal bands, who could afford to spend a tremendous amount of money on producing a spectacular stage show that included a variety of lasers and lights, smoke, and even fire, our band wouldn’t come close to making enough from our music in order to afford such a grandiose stage production. Therefore, it shocked me that those in attendance hadn’t given that fact some thought. Perhaps everything happened too fast for them to process things.

Since I’d forgotten about adding my vocals to finish the song, Nolan had finished his guitar solo and focused on rhythm guitar while holding the microphone stand and singing into the mike. He pointed into the crowd.

I followed his aim and noticed that the three vamps that had made their way down from the balcony had just leapt over the guardrail. As one, all three swung their heads toward me and glared.

Those death stares sent my blood pressure rocketing. With the crowd in a frenzy and the band completely in sync while jamming louder and faster than ever before, I couldn’t take on the three vampires that now rushed the stage if they attacked me simultaneously. Only one solution presented itself, one that could vanquish them…or potentially massacre a wide swath of concertgoers. But I had practiced my abilities and trusted my skills in tight quarters, so I followed my instincts and didn’t think twice about making a mistake. That notion propelled a current of heat through my chest. It rushed into my shoulders, and raced down my arms. The pressure hit my wrists and built in my hands.

Just as they reached the stage and grasped the plank of wood we stood on, I raised both hands. Within that second, I once more considered the crowd and if I missed my target. Nevertheless, if I didn’t respond immediately, the vamps would attack, overpower me, and kill me within five seconds.

I disregarded my fears and focused on the three vamps. I channeled my power, doing my best to call upon the exact amount of force needed to defeat them. A second later, a stream of flames shot out of my palms and slammed into the three vampires, whose panicked, shrill screams were barely heard above the pounding drums, rumbling bass, and the squealing guitar licks erupting from the PA system behind me.

The vamps stumbled off the stage and plunged to the concrete, the flames skittering up their clothes, lighting them up.

This time, the crowd backed up, pressing tight against each other to avoid the three vamps who spun around between the stage and the guardrail, ricocheting off each other like the iron balls bouncing around a pinball machine. As one, the concertgoers grew still. Shocked and confused, they looked on in terror, which prevented them from making a sound or even moving.

The flames ate away at the vamps and sapped their inhuman power as they crawled along the cement for a few moments before their strength gave out.

When the vamps finally lay still, Brandon pounded the drums one last time at the same moment Nolan hit his last power chord, the sounds of their instruments stretching across the now silent venue. The vamps ruptured into a curtain of dust before the flames incinerated them.

As the sound in the amps died, the crowd remained quiet for one second, two, three, four seconds…and then one person clapped tentatively as though unsure if he or she had chosen the appropriate response for what that person had witnessed. A moment later, another person clapped. Then a third. And a fourth. Someone whistled. It prompted another to shout his approval. A second later, the entire crowd erupted into applause. They pushed the guardrail toward the stage with excitement, obviously thinking that they had just watched the grand finale of an unexpected and spectacular encore.

Dozens of people still held their phones overhead, having obviously recorded what just took place, others raised their phones as well and snapped pictures of our band.

My friends flanked me. While our band stood a few feet above the fans that pushed their way up to the stage, we smiled and waved. I glanced at Kendall, who avoided eye contact with the audience by allowing her bangs to shield her face, not yet comfortable with all the attention: she loved playing live and hearing the fans, just not
seeing
them watching her. Having suffered tremendous bullying as a teenager, she still felt awkward with so much attention. Brandon revealed a wide grin and lifted his arms, twirling his drumsticks between his fingers before flinging them into the crowd. Finally, Nolan, the most gorgeous man I’d ever laid eyes upon—surveyed the crowd with a slight grin, taking in the moment, revealing that the accolades were only a starting point, since he believed our band had the talent to become global superstars.

I grabbed the microphone. “Thank you, Chi-Town! We are…
Salem’s Curse
, and we’ll see you next time!”

It was our first concert as a band. And based on the crowd’s reaction, it might not be our last. The band knew the audience enjoyed our music, since they cheered during and after every song. But were they more excited about the flurry of activity the vampires brought about…or our music? Or was it a combination of the two? I suspected it was the latter.

Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to duplicate this show. Because audience members had recorded what went down, others would check out the footage and, if they ever took in one of our shows in the future, they would expect a similar performance. And when we failed to deliver, many of them would become disgruntled and abandon us.