Fangs And Fame (6 page)

Aurora

TREY PULLED HIS PHONE
out long enough to glance at the time.

“
I think it’s the engine,” Jerry said as he looked over the gauges on the dash.

“
So what now?” Trey asked.

“
We radio the rest of your band and get you two on their bus,” Jerry said frankly. “Crosstalk left before we did, but I think your bandmates are behind us. I’m no mechanic, and I have no idea what it’s going to take to get this thing running again, but you have a show tomorrow, and that means you can’t wait around.”

Trey
nodded. “Right.”

“
I’ll get in touch with them,” Jerry offered. “You two gather up what you need.”

Trey looked up at me, but I was one step ahead of him. We both returned to the back of the bus where I cleaned up any evidence of the ritual that had just taken place while Trey starting packing the essentials into our suitcases.

“Not the best time for bus-hopping,” he said with a grin.

I shrugged.
“Could have been worse. At least we’re done here. How long do you think it will take to get this thing fixed?”

“
Not long, I hope.”

That translated into my packing enough for several days, just in case. I saw Trey glancing longingly at the wine fridge, and I didn
’t have to reach out with my power to know what he was thinking. We couldn’t take any blood with us. Finding a way to keep it cold would be the least of our worries on a bus full of humans. It definitely complicated things.

“
It’ll be okay,” he said out loud, like he was trying to convince himself.

I nodded, trying to do the same.
“We’ll figure it out.”

Jerry had set up flashing cones outside to alert oncoming traffic of our location on the side of the highway. He was just stepping back inside when we set our luggage near the door. 

“All set?” he asked.

“
We’re good to go.” Trey answered.

“
Your ride should be here any minute.”

It was more like twenty minutes, which wasn
’t a long wait, but I could tell Trey was anxious to get on the road again. He walked me out to the other bus. Chase greeted us at the door from the jump seat. He stood up and gave a little bow.

“
Welcome to our humble abode,” he said with a grin, reaching out his hand for me. I smiled back and took it, letting him help me up the short set of stairs to the main level.

“
There’s nothing humble about these abodes,” I teased as I glanced around. I hadn’t been on this bus, yet, and I was surprised at how different it was from ours. Aside from the jump seat and the driver’s seat, nothing was the same. That made sense, considering there were more of them on this bus, and they probably preferred not to share a big bed in the back like Trey and I did.

“
I’ll get our stuff,” Trey said to me before heading back to our bus.

“
How about a tour?” Chase asked.

“
Why not?” He gestured for me to go first and I slipped past him, taking another step up into the kitchen/dining area.

“
It’s a little roomier when the slide out is out,” he said.

There were two small booth-style tables, one on either side of me. A TV was mounted in the space behind the jump seat. The kitchen center was beyond that on the left, with a long leather sofa directly to my right. The space was pretty narrow, as Chase had pointed out, but that sort of came with the bus territory.

“Bathroom is here,” he said, pointing to a closed door as we moved forward. “We’ve got twelve bunks.”

Twelve bunks seemed like a lot until I saw how small they were. Most of them were holding bags of clothes and other personal belongings.
“O’Shea and I threw our luggage on Jonas’s storage bunk for now to clear up some beds for you guys.”

“
Thanks,” I said, suddenly appreciating the luxury of the closet space on our bus.

He opened the curtain on two middle bunks, one on either side of the aisle.
“The bedding is all clean. It’s not much, but it works.”

“
At least I don’t have to climb to the top,” I said with a grin.

“
Nah. Jonas sleeps up there, though.” He tilted his head to gaze at the top bunk to the right. “He’s secretly Spiderman.”

We kept moving until we reached the back of the bus. If things had seemed unusually empty and quiet up to this point, it all made sense now. A roomy lounge took up the entire rear of the bus. A sofa that was built around the entire outer edge in the shape of a horseshoe occupied the space  A coffee table
, complete with beverage holders, was in the center. The guys were all watching a football game on a screen mounted to my right.

“
Hey,” I said.

“
Hey Aurora,” O’Shea said casually, gesturing to an empty spot on the sofa next to him. “Pull up a seat.”

I shrugged and got comfortable, just as Neon got off his phone and greeted me with a smile.
“Glad we were behind you guys,” he said.

“
Me, too.”

“
Chase, how about some more popcorn while you’re up?” O’Shea asked, batting his eyelashes playfully. Chase frowned but turned on his heels to fetch the refill.

“
I think that’s a new record,” Jonas said without taking his eyes off the football game. “We usually make it at least halfway through the tour before we have bus problems.”

“
Yeah, what did you guys do to that poor bus?” O’Shea jibed, poking me lightly in the ribs with his elbow.

That was when Trey sauntered into the back and glanced up at the TV.
“Who’s winning?” he asked.

“
Apparently they weren’t watching the game,” Jonas added for O’Shea’s benefit.

I rolled my eyes, and Trey raised a curious eyebrow at me, but he knew better than to ask.

“Hey,” Neon interjected. “I just found out the single is at number ten on the charts.”

“
Seriously?” Trey asked.

“
Not bad,” Jonas offered.

“
We’ve just got to keep at the radio interviews. That’ll really help the song climb,” O’Shea added.

“
Several of those scheduled for tomorrow,” Neon said in agreement. “They definitely pay off, but only if you get some sleep tonight, or you’ll all be completely worthless in the morning.”

O
’Shea saluted Neon. “Yes, sir.”

Half an hour later Trey and I were following Neon
’s advice and hitting the bunks. We lay in our own tiny beds, facing each other across the small gap that separated us.

“
Cozy,” Trey said with a laugh, making me grin.

“
You should be used to this,” I told him. “It wasn’t long ago you were living like this.”

“
You came along and spoiled me,” he admitted. “I just want our giant bed back. Soon.”

“
Amen to that.”

“
Although, this is the first time in a bunk I’m guaranteed to wake up without a kinked neck, or a sore back, so that counts for something.”

“
Definitely a perk. I’m sure this will make a great story someday.”

“
We’re on a bus with three other guys who get bored all too easily. Sleeping in these tiny bunks won’t make the short list of stories we tell all of their children later.”

I nodded in agreement and gazed at him, his hair already sticking out in several places from rubbing against the bottom of Jonas
’s bunk directly above him. He was staring back at me, his head propped up on one elbow. “This is how I always imagined feeling at summer camp,” I gushed. “Sleeping in a little bunk and wishing you were closer to the cute guy you were madly in love with.”

“
Did they have summer camps where the guys and girls could room together?” Trey teased. “Man, did I get totally ripped off as a kid.”

“
You did not go to summer camp,” I insisted, refusing to believe it.

“
Twice,” Trey added, making me giggle out loud. “O’Shea can testify to that. We won’t talk about those summers, though. Nothing good comes from summer camp.”

“
I have this great image of you in short shorts paddling a kayak,” I snickered. “You’re never going to hear the end of this one.”

“
Remind me to burn any of the pictures my mom might still have.”

I bit my lip and wished he was close enough for me to run my fingers through that muddy brown hair. Instead, I settled for reaching my hand out to him. He squeezed it affectionately and said,
“Sweet dreams.”

“
In my dreams we’ll be in a real bed,” I said with a smile.

Aurora

TREY WAS STILL HUMMING
with adrenaline from tonight’s show when I caught him as he came out of the shower room.

“
Follow me,” I said. “This way.” He grinned at me, that lopsided half-smile that could melt an iceberg, but he followed without asking questions. I led him around the corner to the third door on the left. I’d scouted out this room earlier, knowing it would be perfect. Once inside, I closed the door behind us. He raised an eyebrow at me as I slid my jacket off and let it fall to the hard floor. I grinned back at him, gathering my hair to one side and exposing my neck. “We don’t have all night,” I said.

The sound he made was a mix between a moan and a whimper.
“I-I don’t want to-”

“
Yes you do,” I countered. It didn’t matter what words were coming from his mouth, I could see the desire in his eyes, the thirst. He stared at me with those tortured blue eyes, but I could tell he was losing his conviction as his gaze fell to my throat. “We’re about to get on a bus with the rest of the guys,” I reminded him. “I got away to feed tonight, but I’m flying out tomorrow and you have no way of storing blood on that bus. There’s no guarantee we’ll get another moment alone, and you need this before I leave.” He stepped toward me, surprising me by kissing me on the lips, long and hard. Then, just as I was completely absorbed in Trey’s whirlwind, he pulled away in one swift movement and was drinking from my neck. “Take what you need,” I whispered to him. “I can handle it.” But I wasn’t convinced he’d taken enough when he healed the bite marks and pulled back.

“
Thank you,” was all he said.

I knew there was no use in encouraging him to take more. He
’d made up his mind, and I didn’t see the purpose in starting an argument I couldn’t win. “Anytime,” I said.

He grabbed my jacket from where I
’d dropped it on the floor and helped me put it back on. I moved to open the door, but he stopped me, pulling me into his arms and holding me tightly to his chest. I hugged him back, breathing in the scent of him. It was moments like this that I was going to miss when I left tomorrow. 

“
I worry about you,” I said. “I hate leaving you like this.”

“
I’ll be fine,” he assured me, kissing the top of my head. “I’ll try to take it easy. Conserve my strength or something.”

Conserve strength? With shows to do?

He knew I wasn’t buying it, but neither of us wanted to say it out loud.

“
I’ll only be gone a couple of days,” I added, more in an effort to make myself feel better than anything.

“
Would you listen to us?” Trey said, and I could hear the smile in his tone. “We sound like a couple of lovesick teenagers with a sick, co-dependency thing going on.”

“
We’re not far from it,” I said, making him laugh. “If it weren’t for the blood thing, we’d be good.”

“
We’ll be good, anyway,” he said. There wasn’t much else to say. As much as I wanted to stay like that in his arms, we headed back out to meet the guys on their bus.

Neon climbed on the bus just long enough to announce that
“You Only Live Twice” had climbed to number six on the billboard charts, and had reached number three on iTunes. We broke out celebratory Mountain Dews, since that was the beverage of choice on the band bus, and ate chips and salsa as we talked about how the radio promo the guys had been busting their butts at was paying off amazingly. They weren’t comfortable in the success, though. Far from it. They wanted to make sure Neon was still in the process of scheduling whatever appearances and events he could manage in the next few cities. Neon assured them that he was on top of it, and I knew they appreciated that he was doing such a great job. They would never forget Wes, and though the dedication they did for him during the show was a happy tribute, the pain of his loss was evident to anyone who paid attention at all during the song. They would never stop missing Wes, but having Neon pick up the slack and get the job done was a huge weight off all of their shoulders. I was grateful they had him.

Thirty minutes after Neon
’s announcement, we were rolling down the highway, and Trey and the guys were absorbed in a conversation about Legos, of all things. Five minutes into it I was beginning to understand the Lego guitar Trey displayed like a trophy at home on the wall in his studio. It was apparently a band-wide obsession that usually gets worse out on the road. Twenty minutes later, the conversation had gone from childhood memories of building with the blocks to a full-blown competition between all of the guys to come up with the coolest Lego creation. They’d even decided they would show off their projects to the fans online and let the fans vote on a winner. I was comfortable at the end of the weird horseshoe shaped sofa that curved around the TV in the back of the bus, my sketchbook in hand. Trey sat next to me, and every now and then he’d turn his head to look at me, giving me a grin that made the rest of the guys disappear for an instant. I used my charcoals to capture the scene on my canvas paper, getting lost in the act of drawing.

I didn
’t have to say it out loud to see that Trey recognized I’d been right about him feeding from me tonight. This night was a very realistic demonstration of what life was like on this bus. There was zero privacy, and my flight tomorrow was early enough in the day that Trey would probably still be in the middle of doing some promo work when it was time for me to head to the airport. He’d have gone thirsty if we’d waited. I just hoped he’d taken enough to sustain him while I was gone. He was a mystery in so many ways. I still couldn’t be sure why he required fresh blood so often, but not many vampires were exerting themselves in the way that Trey does when he’s onstage. I imagined that had something to do with it. We still weren’t sure what his moon-given talent would be yet, either. A little part of me wondered if knowing that might shed some light on his frequent need to feed.

After the rules of the Lego competition were set, the guys all became engrossed in a video game I didn
’t know anything about. Despite Jonas’s insistence that he was going to teach me how to play like a boss – whatever that meant – I was happy to sit this one out. When my drawing was finished, I set my stuff aside and pulled my feet up, curling up on the sofa with my head resting on Trey’s lap. He stopped what he was doing long enough to straighten a blanket over me and kiss me on the temple. I watched the screen with mild curiosity, but I had ask which player was in which square so I knew who was winning. I don’t remember falling asleep, but at some point I realized Trey was cradling me in his arms. I stirred but Trey said, “I’ve got you,” as he rose to his feet. He carried me the ten feet to the bunks and gently placed me in mine, pulling the blankets up over me. “Sleep good,” he whispered, poking his head in to kiss my forehead.

“
You, too,” I managed. Trey smiled at me and then climbed into his own bunk, just opposite of mine. I remembered falling back to sleep, because I couldn’t stop thinking about how I wouldn’t have traded that tiny bunk on a bus full of rowdy guys for the most beautiful, peaceful palace on the planet. I was more content than I had felt all day long. Thoughts of my impending trip back home, and Trey’s struggle to get by without me were forgotten, at least until morning.