Fangs And Fame (20 page)

Aurora

STANISLAV? OKAY, MAYBE THAT news was worthy of a soap opera, after all. I studied the Barbie Doll, taking note that her heart rate wasn’t fast enough for someone who was nervous. She must not have known we were vampires. She was completely clueless, and yet Stanislav had chosen to send her for a reason. I just couldn’t imagine yet what that might be.

“
Why you?” I asked Nikki, folding my arms across my chest.

“
Shouldn’t you be asking me what the message is?” Nikki asked flippantly.

“
I’m more interested in what he stands to gain by sending you,” I countered.

“
Trey and I go way back,” she mused, smiling in his direction. “Isn’t that reason enough?”

Not even close, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. I was glad I had when Trey sat back down across from her, stretching his long legs out casually in front of him. He was following my lead, and I was happy to see it. His eyes brightened misch
ievously, and he said, “You’re right, Nikki. We go so far back, in fact, that I can hardly remember much of it now.” His tight-lipped smile changed the energy in the air, and I flashed a grin to match his. Nikki’s silence went on a little too long to pass for a natural lull in the conversation. She was obviously flustered by Trey’s cool indifference.

Just then a knock sounded at the door. The rhythmic pattern was Tytus
’s signature knock and Trey called out for him to open the door. Tytus stepped in far enough to set my bags down. He eyed Nikki briefly and turned to Trey and I.

“
Everything okay, boss?” he asked. Nikki looked worried for the first time since I’d arrived. Trey only responded with a nod, and Tytus reluctantly left the bus, but we knew he wouldn’t go far.

I sat down next to Trey and leaned forward on my elbows.
“How do you know Stan?” I asked Nikki. The shortened version of the Synod Elder’s name felt foreign on my tongue.

“
I know a lot of people,” she said, but her tone was bordering on defensive now. I didn’t respond, but watched her and waited. She squirmed under my gaze, shifting her weight. But I glimpsed her thinking, How do I know him? Once again, I shouldn’t have been privy to her thoughts at this time of day, but I focused on her, wondering if I’d be able to hear more if I tried hard enough. Eventually Nikki just said, “Stan reached out to me through a mutual friend.”

“
All right,” Trey said, and even I was impressed with how bored he sounded. “What’s this all about? I haven’t seen my wife in __5?___ days and this is starting to feel like a waste of my time.”

Nikki reached into her designer handbag and produced a sealed envelope. She held it out and I took it from her, turning it over in my hands. The double V emblem that represents Vidi
c Vineyards had been pressed into the wax seal while it was hot. I handed the envelope to Trey and said, “Is that all?”

“
Well, aren’t you going to open it?” Nikki asked. Curiosity was coming off her in waves. She couldn’t help it. She wanted to know what was in the letter as much as anyone.

“
Maybe later,” Trey said, casually flinging the envelope onto the nearby table where it slid until it encountered my purse. He got to his feet and made his way over to the door, opening it up. Without as much as a backward glance he descended the small set of steps. He held the door open and called out, “Well Nikki, I wish I could say I enjoyed our reunion, but I’ll leave the lying to you. You were always good at it.”

Nikki
’s eyes flashed dangerously, but she collected herself as she got to her feet. She wasn’t half-bad at the acting thing. She climbed down the steps and I followed as far as the doorway. Trey’s face was stone-like as Nikki leaned in and kissed his cheek. I enjoyed the fading sound of her heels on the pavement as she disappeared around the corner of the building. Trey came back inside and I went to him, touching his face.

“
Are you okay?” I asked.

“
I am now that you’re here,” he said. He did seem to be doing better than when I’d first arrived. Even his heartbeat had returned to normal.

“
Seeing her again really got to you,” I said, wanting him to know I understood.

“
I was worried that it was going to bother you that she was here,” he said, and I saw the deep concern flash in his eyes again. “Nikki hasn’t meant anything to me in a long time,” he added. “I want you to know that. Even when I was writing the song-”

I moved my finger to his lips to silence him, gazing up into his eyes.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” I told him. “Besides, I get to watch you sing that song all the time. I think I’ll be enjoying it on a whole new level now that I’ve met her.” I grinned, and a soft laugh escaped his lips. Then his gaze fell to the table, and I saw him eyeing the sealed envelope warily.

“
Should we open it?” I said, moving to pick it up.

“
Not now,” he said, catching me by the hand. “I just got you back. I don’t want to worry about vampire politics. Not tonight.... How was the charity auction?”

“
It was good,” I said. “My painting went for over a thousand dollars, and the the signed Catalyst guitar you donated brought in a good chunk of change.”

“
I’m glad,” he said, but I could tell his mind was preoccupied. He turned me in a slow circle, whistling. “You look gorgeous,” he said.

I laughed, glancing down at my jeans and
T-shirt. “I just got off a plane.”

“
Doesn’t matter. Are those jeans new?”

“
I went to that little boutique in town that I like.”

“
I hope you bought five pairs.” He brushed a strand of my hair back, tucking it behind my ear. She smells amazing, he thought.

This reading thoughts during the day on and off was really going to give me whiplash. I smiled at him.
“When was the last time you fed?”

“
It’s not that. I’ve just missed you.”

“
I missed you, too,” I said. “Florida just isn’t the same without you.”

“
Neither is this bus,” he added. “In fact, I’ve been bunking with the guys most nights because it felt weird having it all to myself.”

“
The bus doesn’t hold a candle to that giant mansion you call a house.” He shrugged, having no rebuttal. “I was serious about you getting your fill of male bonding,” I added. “I plan on keeping you all to myself for a while.”

“
Promise?” He raised an eyebrow and bit his bottom lip. Without warning he stepped forward, forcing me against the table so that I had to sit down on it. He leaned in, his hands on the table on either side of me. I bit my bottom lip, nodding to answer his question as he bent down and began trailing kisses along my jawline. He didn’t seem to care that Tytus was still nearby and would almost certainly come calling now that Nikki had gone, and then suddenly I didn’t care either. I had seriously missed that perfect mouth of his. (5?) days was way too long to go without Trey’s kiss. I twisted my fingers into the belt loops on his jeans, wanting to keep him as close to me as possible. He was wearing just a hint of his favorite cologne, and I breathed in the familiar scent. He leaned back just far enough to gaze into my eyes. For just an instant his eyes flashed icy blue luminescence, but it was gone as soon as it had come. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and I realized he was playing with me. He kissed me for real now, and I bit his lip playfully, running my fingers through his short, chocolate-colored hair. There wasn’t a single trace of worry flourishing in the kiss. Any stress had disappeared, and I reveled in the blending of our emotions and the incredible taste of him. When we pulled back we were both grinning like fools.

“
We should celebrate,” he said. Then he lowered his voice and added, “Maybe a shot from the stash?”

“
I won’t argue with that,” I said as he laced his fingers in mine. We moved to the end of the bus, and I sat down on the big bed and watched as he poured two glasses of blood and sat next to me. “To us,” I said as we clinked our glasses together and took a sip. I savored the explosive taste on my tongue. Even blood just tasted better when I was with him. “I really needed this.”

“
Me, too.” He leaned his forehead against mine and said, “Almost as much as I need this.” His fingers went under my chin, gently tilting my face up so he could lightly brush his lips against mine. I grabbed a handful of his T-shirt and pulled him closer, kissing him like I was never going to let him go.

Aurora

OUR FIRST DAY IN Las Vegas was spent filming pieces of the new video for “Mirage.” Luckily, Trey and I didn’t have to start filming his part until late afternoon. We took turns sitting the makeup chair to get camera-ready, although my part was small and didn’t require anything too crazy. Trey, on the other hand, donned different attire for his role. He was playing the part of a music teacher who ran a school-of-rock type program and taught kids to play instruments. O’Shea and Jonas had filmed their alter-egos earlier in the day. O’Shea had portrayed a marine biologist and had spent the entire morning filming and swimming with dolphins at the Mirage casino. Jonas had just wrapped up filming his part, which consisted of him giving a fake presentation at a gaming conference to a large crowd of gaming fans about the latest first-person shooter he was releasing. Apparently they’d used a lot of green screens for his so they could add in the fake video game walk-through and the many rows of people in attendance. Chase was filming his later tonight, since he was playing the role of a high school football coach who was married with a baby on the way. He’d film his scenes at a local high school where the director had arranged a mock football game between two Las Vegas high schools. Compared to all of that, Trey’s was probably the simplest part, but no less fitting.

We were joking around and I was complimenting him on his new geek chic look as the stylists worked their magic on him. They messed up his hair so that it looked almost exactly like it does when we climb out of bed in the morning
– the way I love it best. Then they gave him a pair of black plastic framed glasses to wear that I’m pretty sure Jonas would have been jealous of. He dressed in a pair of stonewashed jeans with a black button-up shirt and a black and white checkered tie.

“
Where did you get that sexy tie?” I asked him.

“
Oh this?” He lifted the tie to study the pattern. “You like that? I stole it from Neon this morning.”

I laughed.
“That explains it.”

“
So,” he said, standing and turning in a circle for me to admire his new look. “What do you think? Do I pull it off?”

“
You’re doing more than pulling it off,” I said, wagging my eyebrows at him.

“
Your turn,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. I appeased him by doing my own little turn. I was wearing a simple pair of mint colored skinny jeans and a vintage Guns N’ Roses tee with some cute, strappy, black shoes. My hair was down in loose waves. “Mmm....” He grinned at me and gave a little whistle, making me laugh again. Then a guy from production knocked and poked his head in to announce that they were ready for Trey.

“
Better head out there,” I said. We thanked the stylists and walked down the hall of the hotel we were filming in. The crew had managed to transform one of the larger rooms into a very believable music class setting. Trey took a moment to walk around and appreciate what they’d done. I stood in the back, watching as he introduced himself to the seven kids who were playing his band students. They’d cast kids who played instruments, so they weren’t clueless by any means, but Trey instinctively wanted to help them out as he tried to remove any pressure they might be feeling in front of the cameras. He was grinning and making the kids laugh, and even started showing a boy who was holding a guitar the correct way to finger some crazy chord. That was when the director called out, “Hey, wait, we have to get this on film.”

Trey froze for a second in response, and then busted up laughing, making the rest of the kids laugh. Then, he repeated what he
’d done when the director called, “Action.” It was one of the funniest things I’d witnessed in a long time, and considering I’d been on the road with Catalyst, that was saying a lot. The director realized very quickly that the best thing to do was just to let Trey make the rounds and spend time with each of the kids, showing them this trick or that trick on whatever instrument they were playing. He took a turn at the drum kit, busting out a beat that Chase would have been proud of, and then showed the boy how to duplicate it. They basically goofed off for an hour. The kids took direction from Trey and showed him how they had all learned to play “Mirage” for the video shoot. Trey got a huge kick out of that, and he beamed with pride while they played it for him. He was a natural band director, which was completely dorky and endearing.

“
Is he always like this?” the director asked me from the back of the room.

“
Yeah,” I said, smiling. “He is.”

“
Well, I’d say that so far the guys have nailed their alter-egos, but this one takes the punch,” he added, grinning and shaking his head as Trey plunked out a tune on the keyboard. “I think we have enough footage of this to work with,” he called out to everyone. “We just need to film Josh being picked up by his mom.”

That was my cue. I stepped out into the hall and the director, Trey, and the boy named Josh followed right behind me. The director spent a few minutes going over what he wanted us
to do, and then I waited in the hall while they went back inside to set up and get the camera rolling. I heard him yell “Action!” and I opened the door to the room slowly, peeking in to see Trey and all of the kids messing around. Josh, the kid who was playing my son waved and I smiled at him, pretending that acting didn’t feel completely weird to me. Then I stepped inside and shut the door. Trey walked over to greet me, messing Josh’s hair while he bragged about what a great kid he was. Of course, none of our narrative would be heard in the video, so Trey was just winging it, which was perfect because it made me laugh and feel giddy, just like the mom I was portraying would feel if she were crushing on Trey-the-music-teacher. We flirted a little back and forth, which I was quickly learning was the easiest part of being in a video with Trey, and then I took a pen off the nearby desk and used it to write a phone number on Trey’s hand. I left the room with Josh, taking care to glance over my shoulder one last time at Trey as I walked out. Trey was watching me with his hands in his pockets, completely oblivious to the chaos that had erupted out behind him from leaving the noisy kids unattended to for a few minutes. The director yelled, “Cut!” and I opened the door again and walked back into the room. “I think we got it,” he continued. “That’s a wrap for this scene. You were all amazing. Great work, everyone!” We all clapped and the kids were beaming with pride at having just filmed their first role in a music video. Trey took a few minutes to sign autographs and snap pictures with the kids, and some of their parents who were hanging around. Then we were changing back into our normal clothes and getting ready to leave.

“
I’m keeping the glasses,” Trey professed as we walked out of the building. He pulled them from his pocket and put them on, grinning at me. “The stylist said I could,” he added, making me grin. “I think they give me a Clark Kent vibe.”

“
Whatever it is, I think it’s pretty hot,” I told him.

“
Is that so?” he asked, leaning closer and wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me toward him. He kissed me quick and I giggled, stealing the glasses from him and putting them on myself. I bit my lip and looked at him. “Oooh, I don’t know,” he said, admiring me. “Maybe you should keep them.”

“
Maybe I’ll wear them tonight,” I said. “I have a surprise for you back at the hotel.”