Eighth Note (Fire Ballad Book 1)

by Kimberly Adams

  “I like the name. Fire Ballad. Suits you.”

  “Are you an obsessive fan? Because I’m getting kind of weirded out here.”

  “I need your help.” He tossed the cigarette to the ground, stomping on it with his boot. “Nina Fayette was found dead in a recording studio in New York yesterday.”

  “What?” I automatically reached for my back pocket, searching for my phone, and then realized it was still sitting upstairs in the bedroom. “I didn’t read a thing about it, and I was on the internet all evening! What happened?”

  “She was alone. They’re performing an autopsy. No one really knows. I’ve heard brain aneurism, cardiac arrest-…,”

  “Nina Fayette is- was- twenty-two years old,” I argued in disbelief, moving next to him to lean against the Chevelle. “Wait- heart attack from drugs, they mean?”

  “Toxicology reports are being run,” he added.

  “And?” I hated when people just put something dramatic out there, and then made me fish the story out of them one sentence at a time. “Why are you here?”

  “I’d like to tell you how I spent the last two decades. Is there a place we can go to talk?”

  “Here will do just fine,” Will’s voice interrupted. He held the baby monitor, and had thrown on jeans and a Boston concert tee I’d gotten him from a show they’d done in Jacksonville last year. I loved when he’d dress down, a change from his clean, preppy look that he consistently kept every time we went out. God. Hot. The pull that began deep in my stomach warmed its way into my heart, and I smiled as I remembered the place his mouth had just been.

  “Hey Will. Good to see you, man.” Cole extended his hand, and Will accepted it with a nod.

  “I trust my kingdom is in one piece?” My husband asked, and Cole grinned.

  “Christopher is doing just fine.”

  “Nina Fayette was found dead yesterday in her recording studio. No one knows why. Cole was just about to explain how this has anything to do with me.”

  “You interviewed Nina,” Cole began, and I nodded.

  “Two months ago.”

  “How? Email, phone…?”

  “She was in town. We had lunch together.”

  “Did she seem… healthy?”

  “She was fine. We talked about her new album coming out next year. I have the article on my blog,” I wrapped my arms around my waist, suddenly chilled.

  “I know. I read it.” I liked the way his I’s sounded like ah’s, and he reached for another cigarette. “Nothing else?”

  “She had a cold,” I remembered, finding a reassuring glance from Will before continuing. “Or she felt like she was getting a cold. It was April. Everyone had a cold. Well, except us. Lucky immortality.”

  “Coughing?”

  His persistent tone unnerved me. “I don’t really remember. Her throat hurt, I think. Shouldn’t you be asking her doctor these things? And why are you even involved in this?”

  “Long story.”

  “Well, we have until the end of time. Let’s hear it.”

  He shifted against the car, glancing at Will once before focusing on me. “Since I was a kid, I knew about monsters and magic. When your own dad fills your head with talk about parallel universes and prophecies, you grow up with an open mind, you know?”

  “Right.” I could relate. I found my abilities to manipulate sound and music when I was three or four years old, and that was when my father had begun training me in weaponry and self-defense. I knew about the prophecy my entire life.

  When Cole had kidnapped me, he believed that I was the key to saving the world. He thought that my brother-in-law Logan was trying to kill me. I was only four, and I called to Will in my dreams (another cool thing I can do. Really, I’m awesome.)

  Will came for me, rescued me, and I was his from that moment on.

  “I’ve spent the last thirty years proving to myself that I wasn’t crazy. I’ve… helped… people with paranormal activity.”

  “You’re a ghost hunter?” I snorted, listening to the monitor crackle and Perry cry out softly. Will gave a deep, amused sigh, gesturing to the house.

  “I am going to bed. Ten minutes, Eva.”

  I automatically scowled at his order. “I’ll be up in a little while,” I countered, using all of my self control not to tell him off for treating me like a kid.

  “Yes, love.” He bent to me, practically lifting me off the ground to catch me off guard with a possessive kiss. I could only hold on to his shoulders as his mouth moved over mine, and it took me five witless seconds to realize that the display was completely for Cole.

  Men, marking their territory. Please.

  “I won’t keep her long,” Cole promised, and Will responded with a quick nod before heading for the house. “All happily ever after here, I take it?”

  I turned to him, tucking my hands under the sleeves of my hoodie. “Obviously. Now tell me what’s going on.”

  He scratched his chin. “No, I’m not a ghost hunter. I just… lend a hand. When crazy, unexplainable shit happens.”

  “I hate to tell you this, but people die. Every day. I’m sure the toxicology reports will come back with some fun party results.”

  He stared at me, contemplating. I returned his look, waiting impatiently. Finally, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, handing it over to me.

  “The security cameras caught her death. There’s no sound. Eva honey, are you sure you can handle this?”

  I accepted his iPhone, shrugging. “Um, I set my father-in-law on fire from the inside out. I think I can handle watching someone die.”

  His palm covered my hand, and his fingertip swept the screen open. His nails weren’t nearly as manicured as Will’s, and his calloused skin felt rough on mine. “No sound,” he repeated, and I nodded, trying not to appear as confused as I felt.

  The street lamp flickered over our heads, and I waved my hand to turn the bulb completely off, leaving us in darkness.

  The video began with an aerial view of Nina, black and white, in the studio. I could hear that the sound had been wiped from the video, and the continuous, looping whisper kept time with my heartbeat as my pulse began to pound in my ears.

  Nina was tall and blonde, with adorable dimples that kept her looking years younger than her actual age. She had two fingers over her earpiece as she sang, and I watched her drag the back of her other hand over her brow in mid-verse.

  She stopped singing, and the rushing sound intensified.

  She was coughing; I watched her reach for something, and then tip her head back and take a long drink from a bottle of water.

  Cole’s hand slid around my waist, and I almost screamed. I’d been so involved in the video, waiting, holding my breath, I’d almost forgotten he was next to me.

  “Eva.” He warned. I ignored him, narrowing my eyes and focusing on the iPhone screen.

  Nina stilled suddenly, and the water bottle slipped from her hand.

  Long seconds passed as she stood there, frozen, still, and I started to lift my finger to touch the screen, checking to see if the video paused.

  Her head jerked down violently, chin to chest. All of her hair surrounded her face.

  When her head snapped upward to meet the camera face-on, my hand clamped over Cole’s arm.

  Her mouth was a wide, dark O, no teeth, no sound… no pupils. Blackness seeped from the corners of her eyes, and she began to bend backward, further, further still, until her entire body was folded- backwards- at the waist.

  “Holy fucking hell,” I exhaled, and Cole’s arm tightened around me.

  “Wait.”

  Nina then crawled to the wall, still contorted unnaturally in half. Fully in the camera’s view now, I could see her face near her ankles.

  She raised one leg, bending her knee so far in the wrong direction that I almost threw up.

  She stabbed the pinpoint of her high-heels into her forehead, thrusting in several quick, jerking motions. Over and over.

  And over.

/>   “Fuck!” I nearly dropped the phone, but Cole caught the device before it fell to the pavement.

  “They found her like this. The investigation began last night.”

  “How do you investigate that?”

  “Eva,” he dropped his phone into his back pocket before locking both of his hands on my upper arms. “There’s more. Her mother and father know what I am, and they know what I do. They’ve seen this. They’re asking me to help.”

  “Help who? She’s dead- obviously, Cole. Whether she was tripping on some drug or what, she’s dead.” I let him rub his hands up and down my arms, okay with the distraction from my thudding heart. God, that was fucking scary, breathe, breathe, breathe, Eva!

  “The recording that she made that night… something… is wrong with it.” He held me steady for a long second, and I pulled away, nodding to indicate that I was okay. “Two officers listened to it that night. They were dead by morning.”

  Chapter Four

  “What? How?”

  “One threw himself out a ninth-floor window. The other followed. Look, before we go on, I need to tell you two things. One, I haven’t listened to the song. Yet. And two, I don’t really know what we’re dealing with- yet- but I may have some idea.”

  “We’re dealing with?” I gave a sardonic laugh, brushing my hand through my wild curls. “I haven’t agreed to help you. I don’t even know what to make of this. I have to think about Perry… and Will…,”

  “I know. Listen,” he jangled his keys in his hand, nodding toward his car. “I can pull out of here and handle this myself if you don’t want to get involved. I completely fuckin’ understand. But you know more about music- and sound- than anyone I’ve ever known, and you’re immortal. And you knew Nina. I thought you’d want to help.”

  “Are you saying that whoever listens to the song she was recording… kills themselves?”

  “There is something in the song, yes. It’s only a matter of time before this shit is leaked into the media. It’s probably happening right now, as we speak. People- mortals- are gonna die, honey. I can’t let that be on me.”

  “Ugh!” I stomped my foot, glaring at his surprised expression. “Whatever happened to just minding our own business? No drama?”

  He curled his lips, giving his shoulders a shrug. “You love the drama, little lady, can’t lie to me.”

  “This is different. Nina Fayette was one of the biggest pop stars of this time. And she wasn’t supposed to die.”

  “This is an entirely new timeline. Different outcomes. We don’t know the future, and we can’t pretend we don’t have a responsibility to this world. Not with all the abilities we’ve been given.”

  “Oh, Jesus. An immortal good Samaritan.” I groaned, lifting my eyes to the moonlit sky. Dark clouds lingered, and I snapped my fingers, lighting the street lamp over our heads. “Okay, so you want me to listen to the song and figure out what the problem is, right?”

  He nodded. “Seems like the best plan.”

  “And how do I guarantee that I won’t shoot myself in the face? I own a lot of guns, Cole.”

  He chuckled. “I can’t be sure. But you’ll live. You’re immortal.”

  “But I can still feel pain, and I like my head, it’s pretty,” I argued, glancing toward the house. “Listen, I need to talk to Will about this. Give me tonight. Okay?”

  He nodded once. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

  I watched him turn to his car. “Wait, are you planning on sleeping out here?”

  “Slept in worse places,” he admitted. Groaning, I drew a circle around my head, locking his doors and pointing to the house.

  “Come on, you can sleep on my couch.”

  “I don’t want to trouble you.”

  “Shut up.” I led him through the front doors, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Where was she recording?”

  “Acedia Studio, near the Catskills. Hey,” he barely spoke over a hum, and I silently thanked him, for Perry’s sake. “Talk to Will. Don’t jump on the internet and start researching. Trust me, you won’t sleep tonight.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, a little intimidated that he’s guessed my intentions so easily. I opened the closet door and stood on my tip-toes, reaching for the extra blanket and pillow on the shelf. He leaned over me and took them before I could curse my height again.

  “Thanks.”

  Moving to the refrigerator, I grabbed two bottles of Stella Artois, removing the caps. He watched me, his expression rolling from surprised to grateful.

  “Thanks,” he echoed with a tired grin.

  We both lowered to the couch, alternating long drinks, staring through the darkness of the living room. I focused on Perry’s little xylophone, remembering just a few hours earlier how easily I’d taken for granted the simplicity of our everyday life.

  “How do they find you?” I asked, tilting my face toward his. “People who need… help?”

  He shrugged, taking another long drink. “Word of mouth. I don’t have a business card or a website.”

  I considered his words, studying my manicured fingertips. “Do they pay you?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Do you accept the money?” I asked, thinking about Will. My father made a lot of money in varying degrees of legal. Will refused to take any of it. He insisted that we would support ourselves independently, without my dad’s help. My blog made some money on sponsorships, and Will’s teaching income was mediocre at best.

  “Depends.”

  “Your vague answers irritate me.” I downed almost half the bottle, brushing the back of my hand over my lips.

  “Yeah, I’ve taken money. When I feel like I’ve earned it, or if I need it.”

  “So, as long as you can justify it in your own mind.” I nodded once. “Good. Because Nina Fayette’s parents are loaded, and if I agree to help you, I don’t expect to walk away from this empty handed.”

  He shook his head once, grunting a breath before shrugging. “You’re one of a kind, lady,” he drawled.

  Hiccuping once, I stood and moved to the bin in the kitchen. “I suddenly feel like shoe shopping,” I answered, pointing to the can. “And we recycle here.”

  He stared at me, chuckling under his breath. “Eva, Eva, Eva.”

  I started for the stairs, and his voice stopped me before I was halfway up.

  “Thanks, honey.”

  I only nodded, skipping up the last two steps to the landing.

  Will was waiting for me in our bedroom doorway. “You have invited him in?”

  “I can’t let him sleep in his car.”

  “What is it, Eva? Speak to me, please,” he begged, undressing me. “You are pale. Something has frightened you.”

  “Cole’s… helping… people,” I tried to find the right words.

  “Right. Ghost hunting, as you said,” he acknowledged, tugging down the covers of our bed.

  “Not exactly.” I let him tuck the blanket around me, comforted as he drew me close to his chest. “Perry’s okay?”

  “She is sound asleep. Both doors are locked.”

  We shared our bathroom with Perry’s nursery, and I knew Will had locked both her door and ours. He didn’t trust Cole, and that was fine, but I needed him to know that I did.

  “Nina Fayette killed herself. In a sickening way. Something happened to her, Will. Something is happening to everyone who listens to the song she was recording. They kill themselves,” I added, my nostrils flaring as I fought back anxious tears.

  “Hush now, Eva, no more this night,” he urged, pressing his lips to my forehead. “You and I both know that there are things in this world that are disturbing, and monsters that have yet to make themselves known. It is not your responsibility to fight them.”

  “I’m not fighting anything. I just…,” I thought about the recent article I’d read on auto-tuning and started to climb out of the bed, but Will only tightened his grip.

  “No Google.”

  I sighed as his hand slid over my hip, rest
ing over my backside. “If I wanted to help, would you be mad at me?”

  “Your decisions often leave me quite… cross.”

  I waited for a few seconds. “So… is that a no?”

  He groaned, slipping his hand under my panties to grasp my bare cheeks. “Sleep, Eva. We will discuss this in the morning.”

  I nodded against his chest, leaving his hand exactly where it belonged.

  Chapter Five

  “It’s possible you’re the only girl in the world who could sleep in after seeing the shit she saw last night.”

  Stirring, I opened one eye, blinking and slapping my hand at the the bedside table for my phone. “It’s my day to sleep in. Fuck, Cole, get out of my bedroom.”

  “You coming with me or not?”

  “Where’s Will?” I demanded, rolling onto my back to stretch.

  “He’s downstairs with your girl. Took me a while to convince him that I’m not a threat.”

  I narrowed my eyes, squinting at him across the bedroom. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, waiting expectantly. His jeans hung off his hips, tattered from age and wear, not from some sweatshop in China. He wore a short-sleeved, olive camp shirt that had too many pockets, which I guessed were strictly for utilitarian purposes.

  Dude needs a makeover. “You didn’t convince him. He just knows I can take care of myself.” I sat up, stretching again before fumbling with my phone. “Oh… my texts are blowing up. They know. About Nina…,”

  “I know. Listen, get yourself dressed, meet me downstairs. I can’t stay here any longer. If you’re not going to help me, then just say so. I need to be on my way.”

  I’d fallen asleep without talking to Will. I knew that Will knew that I’d ultimately do whateverthefuck I wanted to do. “Send Will up. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  I’d already finished in the bathroom (after double checking there was no portal to hell in my bathtub before sitting on the toilet seat) when Will and Perry appeared in the doorway.

  “Good morning,” he murmured, and I met his lips in a kiss before reaching for our baby.