Fangs And Fame (30 page)

Trey

O
’SHEA SEPARATED HIMSELF FROM the rest of us once we were on the bus. Jonas and Chase got comfortable while he stood back in the kitchen. It was obvious he was regretting allowing himself to be cornered for a second time. Still, I couldn’t have him running off if I was going to go through with this.

“
What’s this about?” Chase asked, finally picking up on the tension between O’Shea and I.

“
Don’t look at me,” O’Shea said to him before turning his accusatory gaze on me. “You want to start by telling them what I caught you doing to that girl backstage?”

Jonas and Chase
’s eyes grew wide as they stared at me.

“
You were with another girl?” Chase asked.

I wondered how he
– of all people – could manage to make me feel something like guilt when I hadn’t done anything wrong.

I sighed.
“It wasn’t like that.”

“
I’ll tell you what it was like,” O’Shea piped in. He was feeling braver by the second. “I walked in on Trey biting a fan on the neck.” The guys looked at me with something like disappointment. O’Shea turned and brazenly took a few steps toward me as he continued. “He was drinking her blood.” But now Jonas and Chase were looking at O’Shea like he was the unstable one. “I saw it, okay?” he shouted defensively. “His eyes were like ... glowing.”

I raised my hand to my forehead and sighed. If O
’Shea was going to out me to the guys, he could at least do a good job of it for me. Jonas and Chase were silent. In fact, they looked to me for help, which just infuriated O’Shea. But Aurora was just outside. I’d been stalling as I waited for her. The bus door opened and she climbed the steps inside, looking around at all of us.

“
Hey guys,” she said without so much as a hint of awkwardness in her tone. She came to stand next to me, gripping my hand with hers. The conversation we had next was quick, but silent.

What have you told them?
she asked.

Nothing yet
, I thought back.

You
’re sure you want to do this? It’s not too late to-

It
’s a little late
, I thought.
And yeah….. I’m sure
.

Okay
, then ... I have an idea. I think I can project everything to them and get them caught up. I’m not sure if it will work, but we’ll need your moon-given talent if we’re going to try. Are you up for it?

I hoped I was. I closed my eyes, concentrating on relaxing my mind. Then I focused my thoughts on being open-minded and trusting. I was getting better at controlling my talent, but it was nerve-wracking to have so much riding on my ability to focus it. And using it when I wasn
’t performing was even harder. Not more than a heartbeat after I’d secured my mental and emotional position and amplified it to include the guys, Aurora began projecting memories into everyone’s minds.

It was like watching a video montage of our relationship, except that Aurora only included what was relevant to our predicament. She started with the night she
’d revealed herself to me and included everything from our investigation into Wes’s death. Then she revealed flashes of changing me at the beach house, and the attacks we’d both survived to get to that point, including the car crash that could have killed me. She projected her own near-fatal fight with Malena, and her miraculous recovery thanks to Stanislav Vidic, and even Tytus’s involvement, and his decision to join us.

It was bizarre having our life play out like a movie, but it also had the unexpected effect of bringing everything into perspective. She and I had been through so much in such a short time. No one else
– projected memories or not – could ever completely understand what we’d shared.

When she
’d finished, she released our minds, and I felt my eyes focus again on our surroundings. Chase was shaking his head to clear it, and Jonas had leaned back against the couch cushions, his eyes closed in recovery from the information overload. But it was O’Shea who caught my eye. He still stood in the kitchen area, his eyes locked on mine, his face paler than I’d ever seen. He stood there in silence, and I waited with forced patience. He didn’t have to ask me if it was true. He knew it was. He’d seen more than just a projection tonight. But Jonas and Chase, well, they were another story. They looked a little dazed. Chase managed to get to his feet and took a hesitant step toward me.

“
What’s going on, Trey?” he asked, his voice sounding serious for the first time tonight.

Before I could answer, O
’Shea’s thoughts broke through to me loud and clear.
They’ll never believe it until they see it
, he was thinking.

He was right. I held up a hand to stop Chase where he was. He looked like he
’d just woken up from an unspeakably crazy dream. I knew the feeling. One hand still in the air in front of me, I closed my eyes just long enough to make sure they were glowing when I opened them again an instant later. My fangs unsheathed themselves and I relaxed my lips, making them visible.

The confusion in Chase
’s expression tripled, and he flinched ever so slightly. I dropped my hand and continued to meet his gaze, but instead of backing away like any sane person would, he took another step toward me.

“
It’s true, then.” It wasn’t a question.

Jonas was staring at me too, and then I saw his gaze shift to the spot where Aurora was standing just behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see that she
’d revealed her vampire eyes and fangs, as well.

“
Listen,” I said, fumbling for the right words to say. “I know this whole thing is insane, and I’m asking a lot of you guys right now, but you have to believe that I’m still me ... despite all this.”

Chase sat back down next to Jonas on the couch, but O
’Shea still wasn’t budging from his spot in the kitchen.

“
That might be easier to believe if I knew you weren’t
thirsty
,” Chase said.

“
Have you not heard a word I’ve said tonight?” O’Shea responded. “He took care of that backstage.” O’Shea folded his arms in front of his chest and studied me for a long moment. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” he stated. He cocked his head to look at Aurora. “You’ve been a vampire the entire time we’ve known you.” She nodded and waited for him to continue. This time he turned his gaze on me. “You had no idea, but then other vampires started coming after you, and eventually she told you the truth.”

“
I did everything I could to protect Trey from my world,” Aurora said. “But I’d already let him in too deep. Revealing myself to him was the only way I could keep him safe.”

“
And you just decided to become a vampire, too?” O’Shea asked me.

“
Other vampires were after me,” I said. “I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“
They killed Wes,” O’Shea said slowly, the sting of truth sounding clearly in the weakness of his voice.

I nodded.
“They mistook him for me. I thought once I became a vampire I could run interference and protect you guys from all of this.”

It took the guys a minute to recover from the news about Wes. There was nothing I could say to make them feel better about the facts.

“Somehow things were simpler when I just thought you were on drugs,” O’Shea added.

“
I’m sorry,” I said before I let my eyes return to normal and my fangs recede. “I don’t think there’s a rehab for this. I’ve hated lying to you guys. I just didn’t know how else to protect you. I’m still me,” I said, looking at each of them in turn. “I’ve been me the entire time. I hope you can believe that.”

They all exchanged slow glances then, but it was Chase that took the load off my shoulders when he gave me a huge grin and said,
“Do that thing with your eyes again.”

Trey

“SO, WHEN DID YOU make it official?” O’Shea eventually asked. “When did you become ... “ His voice trailed off, and he waved a hand at me in explanation.

“
Aurora changed me the night after we went shark diving,” I answered.

“
Tytus is a vampire, too,” Chase said. “That explains why I couldn’t get him to share any workout secrets with me. He probably doesn’t even have to hit the gym,” he muttered.

Aurora went to the fridge, and I thought she was going to blow all of their minds by pulling out a bottle of blood-laced wine. Instead, she grabbed some cans of Root Beer and handed each of us one. I popped the top on mine and took a swig, wishing it was something stronger, and feeling three attentive pairs of eyes on me as I did so.

“After what I saw tonight, do we need to worry about having a shortage of fans in the future?” O’Shea said, and I was impressed that he managed to only sound half as concerned as he really was.

“
About that,” I said slowly. “I needed to feed, and I couldn’t get away long enough to do it somewhere else. I promise I didn’t hurt that girl. Right now she’s telling all her friends about how she ran into me backstage, and how I was a perfect gentleman.”

“
She doesn’t remember that you were sucking her dry?” O’Shea asked.

It took a lot of effort not to roll my eyes at his comment.
“No,” I said. “I healed her, and I only took a little.”

“
Well, at least that explains why you’ve been sneaking off with random girls the whole tour,” Jonas said matter-of-factly. “We were trying to decide if we should tell Aurora what you were up to.”

This made Aurora smile.
“Good looking out,” she said to him with a wink. Jonas shrugged.

“
So, obviously you can still drink and eat food?” Chase asked me, nodding toward the can of Root Beer I was holding.

“
Sure. It’s just not ... the same.” I glanced down at my Root Beer longingly. “As long as we get fresh blood every so often, we manage.”

“
Are you planning on making us ... like you?” Jonas asked, still unable to bring himself to use the word vampire.

I shook my head.
“No way.” Jonas looked a little relieved. “I’ve done everything I can to shield you guys from all of this. I’m sorry I wasn’t better at it. I never meant-”

“
I’m not sorry,” O’Shea said suddenly. “I’d rather know.” He looked at Chase and Jonas. “Wouldn’t you guys? We don’t have to wonder what’s going on anymore. Everything is starting to make sense now.” He leaned against countertop, and suddenly he was talking to me like he always did. “The women, the secrecy, the fact that you don’t seem to like food all of a sudden....”

The guys nodded in agreement, but I could tell they were still processing how this new information completely re-shaped everything they knew about the last few months.

“How did you do that mind-movie earlier?” Jonas asked.

“
That was Aurora,” I said, smiling at her. “Just one of the many bonuses that come with the vamp gig.”

“
While we’re at it, I owe all of you an apology,” Aurora said, breaking her silence. “It’s my fault Trey got dragged into this mess to begin with.” She met my eyes, and I saw a hint of the regret that used to scare me so much, except that now I understood exactly where it came from. Regardless of how well my brothers were taking the news, I’d always regret having to bring them in on this. And we were just getting started.

“
From what I understand, you’ve saved Trey’s life over and over,” O’Shea said to Aurora. “If anything, we should be thanking you.”

“
I appreciate that,” Aurora said. “But you might not feel that way after Trey fills you in on the latest.”

“
What do you mean?” he pressed.

“
I guess it all started when I went to Stanislav Vidic for help when Aurora was hurt,” I began. “Mark tried to warn me about asking a powerful vampire like that for help, but I didn’t have a choice.” Aurora reached over and squeezed my hand, and I realized she was probably seeing flashes of those memories in my mind, as clear and vivid now as they were back then. “Aurora was dying, and I didn’t care about the price.” O’Shea met my eyes then, and I saw a picture of Kacie in his mind. He understood exactly where I was coming from. “Then when we had our release party I got this cryptic note from Stanislav,” I continued.

“
What did it say?” O’Shea asked.

“
Let’s just say it was pretty clear that he expected me to return the favor someday.”

“
This is getting good,” Chase added.

Jonas nodded in agreement.
“It’s not too late to pop some popcorn.”

O
’Shea’s eye roll let me know that he, at least, understood how potentially serious this whole Stanislav business was. “Go on,” he prompted.

“
Well, vampires just started randomly popping up at our shows, or sometimes even our hotel. It took us a while to figure out that it was all connected.”

“
What does he want you to do?” O’Shea asked.

“
He claims he wants to bring vampires out into the open. He doesn’t like having to hide what we are, and he wants to use Aurora and I to come out. He thinks we have enough pull with humans to make the transition easier for both sides.”

“
He’s completely lost his mind,” Aurora added.

“
You’re not going to do it,” O’Shea said. It was a statement, not a question.

“
No. Of course not.”

“
Can’t you use some of your new vampire skills to derail his plane?” Chase asked.

“
It’s not that simple,” I said. “He’s old, which means he’s really powerful. Besides, my moon-given talent hasn’t exactly come in handy so far.”

“
Moon-given what?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“
Talent,” Aurora repeated for me. “Every vampire has a specific skill they are naturally gifted with. Trey has a way of projecting his emotions onto the people around him.”

“
It’s particularly strong when I’m performing,” I added. “I’m still not sure why that is. I’m working on it, though. My control is getting better.”

“
Wait a minute,” O’Shea was grinning now, like a man who had it all worked out. “Is that why our fans have had some really strange reactions to this new album?”

“
I’d say passionate is a better word for it,” I added.

O
’Shea grinned and shook his head. “You used your vampire juju on us tonight, didn’t you?” he asked, but his tone wasn’t accusatory.

“
Juju?” I grinned at him. “I plead the 5th.”

O
’Shea moved forward and slugged me on the shoulder. I can’t explain how good it felt to have him playing around like I hadn’t just shook his entire world upside down. For the first time, I had hope that we might actually get through this together. All of us.

“
So, what’s your moon-given talent?” Chase asked Aurora.

“
I can block my thoughts from the prying minds of other vampires,” she answered casually.

“
Vampires can read minds?” Jonas asked with childlike excitement.

“
There’s an assortment of abilities,” Aurora said. “Mind-reading is one of them.”

“
So is running like Speedy Gonzales,” O’Shea declared. “I learned that one the hard way.”

“
You’re just slow,” I said, earning a sarcastic sneer in response.

The bus door opened and Tytus climbed the first few steps, sticking his head in.
“Can’t stall any longer, Boss,” he said. “People are getting antsy. Neon is asking questions.”

“
It’s all right, Ty,” I answered. “We’re good to head out now.” He nodded and disappeared again.

Jonas looked at me with wide eyes as the bus door closed.
“That guy was scary before I knew he was a vampire.”

I grinned.
“Just be glad he’s on our side.”