"How long have you been working this out in your head?" I asked, certain he'd been planning it out for weeks.
"About ten minutes," he admitted in a whisper, making me laugh. "Just don't tell the guys I said that. They'll think I'm slacking off."
"Said what?" I grinned at him, feigning ignorance.
He finished up some details on the sketch before taking it over to Roger, who was talking business with Neon in between bites of supreme pizza. Roger looked enthusiastic about the drawing, and soon all the guys had gathered around in a huddle to lean over it while Trey explained the technical details he had in mind.
"This just makes me want to get on stage even more," Chase admitted. "It's starting to feel real again."
"We just have to make sure we won't disappoint when the time comes," O'Shea said.
"Let's get back to work, then," Chase said, grabbing another slice of pizza as he made his way back toward the live room.
Their enthusiasm was contagious, and I found myself daydreaming about what it would be like to go on tour with them. Touring was a part of this life I hadn't experienced yet, and I was excited to see all their hard work come to fruition as they shared the new record with their fans live. I followed Trey back into the live room and sat down in front of my easel again. I set aside the painting I'd been doing of Vidic Vineyards and pulled out a fresh canvas. I grabbed a brush and mixed up some new paint colors as the guys started to play again. I began by filling in the shape of a large stage. Then I added the screens Trey sketched as draping behind where the guys would be set up with their instruments. Over the next several hours, I painted in the guys, each in their spot on the stage. Then I worked at adding a sea of fans in the audience. Giant spotlights in the ceiling bathed the guys and the crowd in blues and greens. Trey was front and center, slamming on his guitar and leaning into a microphone that rested on a stand in front of him.
When O'Shea called a dinner break hours later, I was just putting the finishing touches on my latest work of art. Chase was the first to come my direction on his way to the hallway, but he stopped dead in his tracks at my side. He didn't say anything, but rather stared, slack-jawed at my work. O'Shea practically bumped into him on his way out of the room but realized what he was looking at and paused to do the same.
"Hey," O'Shea said slowly. "That's amazing." He gave me an approving smile and waved at the other guys to come over and see. "Aurora's got your set painted, Trey," he added as Trey and Jonas sauntered over.
Trey's eyes grew wide as he came around behind me and bent down to study the painting. He kissed my cheek, grinning and shaking his head in disbelief. "This is insane," he said. "Have I told you today how freakishly talented you are?"
"You have now," I said, smiling in content.
"We're flipping this around so we can see it when we come back in," O'Shea said. "If that doesn't inspire us to get every one of these songs perfect, I don't know what will."
"I'll do it," I told him, standing up and pretending to stretch my legs. "It's not dry so no touching allowed. You guys go and grab some food. You must be starving."
We ate dinner in the lounge again, and Karatz joined us. He stopped in to see how rehearsal was going. I had to admit it was good to see him. He was familiar. Aside from the wedding, which he and Serena had attended, Trey and I hadn't seen much of him. Even though the guys were using his live room for rehearsal space, the rehearsals had been few and far between, and Ken's skills weren't really needed now that the record was finished. About the time dinner was wrapping up, Jonas announced that he had good news from behind the screen of his fancy laptop. The director who had done the video for "You Only Live Twice" sent him a private youtube link for the guys to view the finished video.
"Let's have it," Trey said, rushing over to Jonas's side.
"Not hardly," Karatz said in his authoritative fatherly tone, surprising everyone. "You're not seeing your video for the first time on some little laptop screen. Come on inside the house, and we'll put it on the big screen."
By big screen, Karatz had meant his home theater. It didn't take long for Jonas to pull the video up using the projector Karatz had. Trey looked anxious as he and I took a seat on a large leather sofa on the front row, Cowboy walking around at our feet. O'Shea perched on the armrest next me, looking just as anxious. I took Trey's hand and gave him a reassuring smile, but I was just as excited about seeing the video as they were.
Karatz dimmed the lights in the room, and the video began playing, with a sweeping shot from the helicopter of Pier 60 at dusk as the opening notes of the song began to play.
Trey and the other guys were making their way across the sand in slow motion, approaching the pier. As the guys walked, they passed zombie vendors and street performers, giving the normally jubilant feel of the peer an eerie presence instead. The guys slowly but surely made their way through the zombies who watched them with mild interest. Once at the end of the pier, the guys joined with their instruments and began playing the song, performing it for the camera. Shots of the zombies becoming more and more intrigued with the humans trapped on the pier were shown in between footage of the guys singing the song. By the time the song reached the bridge, the zombies were overtaking the guys in true horde fashion. The next time the guys were on screen, they were jamming out on their instruments again, but this time in the full zombie get-up they'd received from the makeup artists. The effect was amazing on camera. They looked insanely cool, even if they were gross zombies.
Chase gave out a hoot, and O'Shea gave Trey a celebratory clap on the back as the guys watched the theater screen, admiring how well the video had turned out. We were all clapping and cheering by the time it faded to black at the end.
"We need to premiere this at the launch party tomorrow," O'Shea said. "I can't wait for the label to see it."
"I can't wait for the fans to see it," Chase added. "We could stream it to them just like we’re doing with the show, right?"
Trey nodded, unable to wipe the perma-grin from his face. "We’re going to add it to the show. They're going to love it."
Chapter 53
Trey
“I HOPE YOU KNOW how to work this thing,” I called to Aurora from the kitchen. I had just plugged in the new airbrush gun I’d picked up.
“Sure,” she said. “They’re not too bad.”
I looked up to see her smiling at me as she descended the stairs in a little red dress.
"I'm suddenly feeling under dressed," I said as I took her hand and turned her in a slow circle, making Cowboy bark to vie for my attention.
“That’s only because you don’t have your shirt on yet,” she answered. “Sit down. We have a tattoo to put back.”
I did as I was told and sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar. Aurora had spent part of the afternoon drawing a perfect replica of my Catalyst tattoo on a sheet of adhesive vinyl. Then she cut it out with a razor. She loaded some black ink into the airbrush gun and peeled the back from the vinyl, positioning it on my skin. “Here goes.” She set to work spraying in the design with the airbrush. The ink felt cool against my skin, and she was finished in about thirty seconds. She peeled the pattern from my chest and stepped back to admire her work. “Perfect,” she said with a satisfied nod. Then she handed me a small mirror. “See for yourself.”
I held the mirror up to examine my new tattoo. She was right. It was perfect. “Have I told you today how amazing you are?”
“You have now,” she said happily. “Let it dry before you put your shirt back on or you’ll have a mess.”
I leaned back and waited for the ink to dry, my mind wandering.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she set to work cleaning the airbrush gun.
"I was just thinking about my dad," I admitted, feeling the strangeness of the words as they rolled off my tongue. "I don’t know if he’ll come tonight or not."
She raised her eyebrows at me, and then tried not to look so surprised. "You’ve done all you can by reaching out to
him,” she said. “You invited him to come tonight and said you’d send a car for him. The only thing you can do now is wait and see what happens.”
“I just hope he got my message.” I sighed. "Something about Stanislav got me thinking while we were at the vineyard," I said. "He just seemed so ... lonely."
"I'm sure he is," she agreed.
"He's got that big old house and all those vampires working for him, but the only family he can really associate with is Damir, and Damir doesn't seem to care about him." Aurora nodded for me to continue. "I don't think I would wish that on anyone. Being alone like that when you have family you could be close to. My dad is far from perfect, and he may just end up disappointing me again, but if he's serious about getting to know me again, I can at least give him that chance. If all goes well, I'm going to be alive for a very, very long time," I continued. "I don't want to live with regret, if there's something I can do now to fix things between us."
Aurora nodded again and was silent for a minute before she added, "I'd give anything to see my father one more time." She reached her hand out to me and I squeezed it, confident that I’d made the right choice by inviting my dad.
"You’re right,” I said. “All I can do is wait and see if he shows." Aurora smiled, and I pulled her close, kissing her on the lips. We were interrupted by the sound of a car horn out front. “I think our ride is here,” I said against her lips.
“I think you’re right. She laughed and took my arm as I led the way out the front door. Chase and Jonas were waving to us from the limo, their heads sticking out of the sunroof. You’d think they’d never rode in a limousine before with the way they were acting. We might as well have been a group of teenagers who spent way too much money on a ride to the prom. When Aurora and I climbed in, we found O'Shea and Kacie sitting in the back. Kacie's grin was about a mile wide.
"I've never been in a limo," she admitted to Aurora. "I could definitely get used to this."
"These guys have a way of doing that to you," Aurora teased.
The nervous energy in the limo was intense by the time we reached the venue. The marquee outside had our band name in big black letters across it. I realized just then how much I had missed touring. It was going to be so good to go back on the road and sing for the fans again. They were the reason I had the best job in the world. The venue inside was a large ballroom type setting with a stage set up on one end. The album cover was on a giant screen at the back of the stage. It was amazing to see it larger than life. After gawking at it for a few minutes, the guys and I set to work signing copies of the new CD. Aurora and Kacie busied themselves checking out all the stuff at the merchandise booth. The party was set to start in an hour, but we still had a few things to do to get ready first. When we were done putting our John Hancock's on the new record, and I was pretty convinced Chase and Jonas might be high on Sharpie, the guys and I took to the stage to do a sound check. When we finished, Crosstalk, the band who was opening up for us on tour, took the stage to check their instruments.
"These are the guys from the wedding," Kacie was saying as I approached her and Aurora. "They're really good."
"They're coming on tour with us," I added. "They're from Orlando, so I guess it'll be a bunch of Florida boys hitting the road together."
"Sounds like trouble," Kacie said, grinning as O'Shea walked over.
"You wouldn't be talking about me, would you?" he asked.
"Maybe." Kacie raised an eyebrow, and O'Shea laughed.
"Come on," he said to her. "I think my parents are here."
Kacie gave Aurora one of those nervous smile-giggle combos girls do and followed O'Shea to the other side of the venue.
"She's going to be pretty devastated when the tour starts and O'Shea leaves town," Aurora said to me as she watched them walk away.
"I wouldn't put it past him to fly her out to a few of the shows," I said. "I happen to know her boss, and she's pretty cool. I'm sure she'll give her a few days off here and there to see O'Shea."
Aurora smiled. "It's strange how things work out. I never would have guessed that Kacie and I would end up with guys who are best friends. It's crazy."
"With everything that's happened the last few weeks, that might be a two on the crazy scale."
"You have a point."
"Come on," I said, taking her hand. "You should meet the Rushings, too. I spent as much time at their house growing up as I did my own."
I introduced Aurora to O’Shea’s mom and dad who fussed over us for a few minutes.
“We’re really sorry we didn’t make the wedding,” Mrs. Rushing said to me, giving me a big hug.
“Are you kidding?” I said with a smile. “You couldn’t pass up a cruise for your anniversary. Did you have a good time?”
“It was amazing,” she said. “The two of you should take a cruise sometime. It’s so relaxing.”
“I could do with some relaxing,” Aurora said to her with a smile.
“Isn’t that the truth?” I added.
“I don’t think relaxing is in your near future,” Mr. Rushing said, gesturing to the stage. “You boys are going to be busy again with this tour.”
“It’s the next best thing to relaxing,” O’Shea said. “I love touring.”
“I’m excited to hear the songs tonight,” Kacie added.
“You’ve heard them all,” O’Shea said to her, grinning.
“It’s not the same,” she insisted. “I want to watch you play them.”
“Let’s hope everyone feels that way,” I added.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” said a voice from behind me. I turned around to see Antonio, Beck, Mark and Hana approaching.
“Yeah,” Mark agreed as he adjusted his jacket sleeve over the bright yellow wrist band he’d been given at the door. “There’s already a line of kids out there waiting for the doors to open.”
“I’m glad you made it,” I said to them. “Make yourselves at home. The doors open in about five minutes, so you might want to snag a seat up front before things get too crazy in here.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Antonio said.
“I’ll help them find seats,” Aurora said to me. “You go do whatever it is that rock stars do.”
I grinned at her and kissed her cheek before she led the group toward seats in front of the stage. O’Shea and I caught up with Jonas and Chase and tracked down Neon.
“We good to go?” I asked.
“The live feed is set up and so far it’s working,” Neon said. “Keep your fingers crossed.”
“And the tribute to Wes?” I asked.
“The slideshow is good to go. So is the video for “You Only Live Twice.” The rest is up to you guys.”
Neon hurried off, and I nodded and faced my brothers who were all looking at me expectantly, like I should have prepared a speech or something for the occasion.
“This is it guys,” I said, grinning. “Let’s get out there and kill it.” Thankfully, that seemed to be all anyone needed to hear from me. We slapped each other on the backs and headed to the side of the stage where we waited to go on.
Chapter 54
Aurora
I SHOWED EVERYONE TO their seats in the front row but pulled Hana aside to talk.
“Is everything okay?” she asked me as I nodded for her to follow me a little ways away.
“Yeah,” I said. “I … I just wanted to thank you. Trey has told me how amazing you were the night I got hurt.”
“Anyone would have done it,” she said, smiling kindly. “I was happy to help.”
I took a deep breath, searching for the right words. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you were there to take care of Trey for me when I couldn’t.”
“Aurora,” she said after a moment. “I can tell how much you mean to Mark.” Her eyes drifted over to where Mark was sitting, and he smiled up at her upon feeling her gaze. “Seeing how important you are to him is all I needed to know about what kind of person you ar
e. I’m just glad you’re okay after everything that happened.”
I smiled at her. “Mark is a great guy. He deserves to be happy with someone like you.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We girls need to stick together.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I told her.
“When does that husband of yours take the stage?” she asked.
“Soon, I imagine.”
“Maybe we should get to our seats before the room gets flooded by teenagers.”
Hana and I took our seats, and I had to fight back a laugh after seeing how giddy Beck was.
“As if being at my idol’s wedding wasn’t enough,” Beck said as the doors in the back of the ballroom opened and teenagers and twenty-something’s started milling in. “Now I’m here at the album launch party. It’s crazy. Look at all these people, and I have a better seat.”
I smiled at him and tried to imagine how this must feel for him. If Aden and I had ever been invited to a party like this with any of the bands we used to listen to, we’d have been freaking out, too. It was fun to see the night from Beck’s perspective in that way. As for me, I was looking forward to seeing my amazing husband rock out on a real stage for a real crowd for the first time since we’d met at Carlie’s. I couldn’t have known on that night what the future held for us. I’d fully planned on feeding on him after he walked me home, but fate stopped me for reasons I couldn’t have foreseen. Fate had bigger things in mind for Trey and me.
“I need to tell you something,” Antonio said. The cryptic tone of his voice was anything but reassuring.
“It sounds serious,” I said.
He met my gaze, and I could see the worry in his dark brown eyes. “It’s Malena,” he began. Great. My least favorite conversation topic.
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