Chapter Nine #2
I look over at Taser. He’s watching me, and when his eyes meet mine, he shrugs. “It fit better. When I think of you, I don’t think of heavy drumming. I think of something a little bit softer.” He fixes me with a meaningful stare. “But still metal,” he clarifies, pointing his pick at me.
“Oh yes,” Reese agrees. “Like a pink metal Barbie.”
“Pink Metal,” Blake muses. “Kind of sounds like a fun girly pop metal fusion genre.”
We all chuckle, trying to picture how that might sound. “I don’t hate it,” Amelia says with a shrug. “Maybe we should experiment.”
“Experiment later. We still have an hour or so before the neighbors complain about noise,” Taser says, checking his phone for the time. He’s kind of unofficially the parent of the group. Making sure band practice doesn’t get derailed with everyone’s crazy antics.
I settle back into the couch, tucking my feet up under me and wrapping a blanket around my shoulders to ward off the chilliness of the garage.
By the end of their practice set, I’m beaming.
I haven’t heard them play in quite a while, I realize, and they have really improved.
It’s saying a lot, considering I’ve always known how talented all of them are as musicians and artists.
But it’s like now they’ve really grown together as a band.
And Blake seems like he’s been with the band from the very beginning.
As everyone is putting away their gear, Taser comes over and sits next to me on the couch.
“Bliss,” he starts but pauses as I avert my gaze from him, giving him the cold shoulder. “Is something wrong?”
Yes.
But I can’t get myself to confront him. He’s made me into a cheater. I roll my shoulders, hoping to ease out some of the tension coiled in my body. Then I force myself to meet his eyes. “Sorry, I’m just tired. And cold. This garage is always so fucking cold.”
“It’s nice in the summer, though,” he replies, though I know he doesn’t buy that everything’s okay. “Are you sure you’re alright? Do you need to top off again?”
“No,” I reply quickly. I’m saved any further explanation when Amelia’s phone rings. She inhales sharply.
“Fuck,” she says, waving the phone around excitedly. “It’s Bill from Moon Blood.”
My brows raise as Dericia starts dancing in celebration.
Moon Blood is an indie metal label and most of the bands they sign go on to even bigger record deals later in their careers.
“Bill’s been interacting with us a ton on social media!
” Reese comes over, taking my hands in hers. “This is huge, Bliss.”
We all wait with bated breath as Amelia answers the phone and puts Bill on speaker. “Hey, Bill, it’s Amelia.”
“Amelia, how are you?”
“Pretty good. And yourself?”
“Well, I’m in a little bit of a pickle. But I’m hoping Goddess’ Trance can help me out. I had a band pull out of the Alchemy Festival.”
The Alchemy Festival. The biggest metal rock festival in the entire world. The one the wraith wants me at in order to get close enough to the anonymous frontman of Voracious Maw in order to steal something from him.
Well, he did say he’d take care of that part. The demon works fast.
“Oh no, what happened?” Amelia asks.
“Well, you know Death and Devils, right? Their lead was in a car accident. He’s gonna be fine, but he broke his leg and so they can’t perform. Too bad he’s not kindred, or it would have been no biggie to heal that leg right up.”
“That’s terrible,” Amelia starts to say, but Bill interjects.
“Yeah, yeah, terrible. Anyways, Amy—” she bristles at her most hated nickname, “—I need a band. And I’ve been digging the videos you’ve been putting out on social media.
It’s just a small slot. Two shows, and you’d be the opener for the opener of the main headline for two nights, but this would be huge for you guys. ”
Amelia nods, almost forgetting to speak. “Yes, absolutely, we’re in.”
“Great. My assistant will send over all the details to you and help get your lodging sorted.”
“Thank you so much, Bill!”
“Yeah, thanks.” It sounds like someone else has taken away his attention. He hangs up. Amelia’s phone screen fades to black. She looks up around the room, surprise and excitement lighting up her face.
“Can you fucking believe this?” she asks as her eyes fall to mine. I beam at her. In my excitement I’ve stood up from the couch and am ready to run to her, but everyone else surrounds her, all in one big group hug.
“Congrats,” I say to my sister, and then I look to the side door of the garage, wondering if I should go ahead and leave the band to their inevitable night of celebration.
“Bliss!” my sister yells, as I take a step towards the door. “Get in here right now!”
The band opens up and Dericia all but drags me into the center of it, my sister’s arms enclosing me and everyone else surrounding us.
But as much as I wish everything could just go back to normal, it can’t.
I disentangle myself from the group, plastering on a smile. “I bet Liz has some champagne somewhere. I’ll go grab a bottle?”
“Hell yeah!” Blake says, clapping me on the back. “We’re celebrating tonight!”
I’ve made it out of the garage and have just started climbing the slightly mossy flagstone steps that lead up from the detached garage to the house when Amelia catches up to me, her black platform boots clomping on the ground. She links her arm through mine. “I’ll help you search.”
We enter the kitchen through the back door of the house and begin rummaging around, not only pulling out a bottle of champagne but also snacks.
“How are things at The Wild Mare?” Amelia asks, looking over her shoulder from where she’s pulling out some red solo cups. Liz has forbidden us from getting into her nice glassware after Taser shattered not just one wine glass, but two, in the same night.
“Pretty good,” I reply automatically.
“But you were still gonna take some time to travel, right? For your starmoon?”
I take in a breath. “I’m not so sure anymore. Not with the way the stone reacted.”
“Liz filled me in on what that fae councilwoman said.”
I nod. I figured she would. “It just seems a bit pointless now is all.”
“Well, what if you came to the festival with us?”
I look up from where I’m pouring a bag of chips into a large bowl. “Why?” I think of the wraith’s offer.
“You could take back your position as band manager. We could use you. You’re perfect for it, Bliss. You know us, and our music. You’ve always kept us in line and made sure we never turned into one of those cliche bands that drinks too much and is always late to shows.”
“Well, I think you could manage that yourself, you know, by not drinking too much and not being late to your shows.”
She waves a hand dismissively as if that’s not true. “Look, I know things didn’t work out well last time. But Jordan’s not around anymore, and we’re maturer and wiser.”
“Are we?” I ask, my tone all of a sudden having a bit of a bite to it. I look over to where I saw Amelia and Taser talking at the front door two days ago.
Could it really be this easy? I take up my old position, go to the festival, steal whatever from a sexy anonymous musician, get turned into a water nymph, and get my mate? Live happily ever after?
Amelia follows my gaze, her own narrowing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I heard you two talking.” I force myself to look at my sister, even though I want to look anywhere but.
She takes in a deep breath. “Bliss,” she starts, but I hold up a hand, stopping her.
“You both lied to me.”
Her voice pitches higher. “I didn’t know!”
“You might not have known beforehand, but you knew after.” I throw the empty chip bag in the trash, opening another and grabbing another bowl. “And you didn’t tell me.”
“What would have been the point, Bliss?” Amelia rips the cork off the champagne bottle, the carbonated contents erupting and spilling onto the floor, until Amelia redirects it into her cup.
She sets the bottle on the counter and drains her cup in one go.
“What’s done is done, and all you finding out about it would have done is made you feel like shit. ”
“Are you okay with what he did?”
“You know what, Bliss? I am. I am okay with it. Because you needed help. I was scared. And I get why he lied to you. He cares about you too, almost as much as I do.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“I don’t fucking care! You’re healed now and that’s what matters.”
I look away from her and take a deep breath. “This, this right here is why I can’t be your band manager.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I don’t forgive him and I don’t forgive you. Being your band manager would just make it worse. It’d be like last time all over again.”
Amelia looks like I slapped her in the face. “Is it that you don’t forgive me for not telling you about Taser, or that you don’t forgive me for how things were handled with Jordan?”
I throw my hands up. “Maybe both? I don’t know!
I just know I’m tired of being lied to. I’m tired of people telling me how to live my life.
” Between Amelia constantly criticizing how I live, to the stars not blessing me with a normal bond, I am so over not being in control of my own life.
The wraith’s deal almost feels like the first real decision I’ve been given in years.
I take a few steps towards the front door, turning back before I open it. “I really am excited for you, that you’re going to the festival. It’s huge and I know you’ll be amazing.” My hand is on the knob when I hear Amelia let out a huge sob.
I turn around and see her standing in the kitchen, her hand shaking around the empty cup, shoulders hunched forward, long dark strands of hair in her face. Amelia never cries.
I can count on one set of fingers how many times I’ve seen her cry.
“Bliss.” She hiccups softly in between sobs. “I’m so sorry. I want— I want—” She can’t manage to get the words out.
I roll my eyes at the ceiling and let go of the door handle, coming over and stopping in front of my sister. I gently take the cup out of her hand, setting it on the counter.
“What do you want?” I ask, trying to add some gentleness to my voice, but I don’t think I succeed. She still can’t seem to look at me.
“I want things to go back to how they used to be,” she responds in a whisper, like she knows that can’t ever happen.
More tears flow and she wipes at her eyes, anger starting to creep back into her.
My sister never stays sad for long. It always transmutes into a different emotion that she’s more comfortable with: anger, lust, aggression.
“I want you to move back in and I want you to be a part of the band again. I want you with me, and maybe that’s selfish, but it feels safer when you’re around!
And I want to take one of Jordan’s super expensive guitars and I want to fucking bash his head in for what he did to you.
I don’t want you to work at some stupid country bar and I JUST WANT TO HAVE MY SISTER BACK!
” She lets out a cry of frustration and slumps to the floor, hair tangling around her and black eyeliner, shadow, and mascara streaking down her cheeks.
I take a seat on the floor with her, pushing some of her hair from her face.
“You were the very first person who ever encouraged me with music,” she adds after a long silence.
“You don’t need me anymore,” I tell her. Though why I don’t know. Something about this day has made me unable to continue denying the truth. I want what the wraith is offering me and this would literally be step one to getting it.
“I don’t need you, I know that. I’m okay on my own. The band will be okay without you, but that’s the thing, Bliss. We want you. I want you.”
Something softens in me. Maybe it’s that my older sister is such a mess right now.
Maybe it’s that I’ve just been needing to hear that I have a place somewhere in the world.
I want that feeling of belonging and I want it with my mate.
So maybe I have to steal something. And maybe I have to lie to my sister about my reason for accepting her offer of being band manager.
But so be it. She’ll understand eventually.
“Okay,” I say simply, stroking a hand over her head, smoothing down her hair.
“Okay?” She looks up at me with huge raccoon eyes—literally she looks like a baby raccoon right now. “Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll be your manager again.”
Amelia lets out a squeal and throws her arms around me, tugging me close. “Bliss, you are the best sister and best friend I could have ever asked for. I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
She sighs contentedly and lets me go, rubbing a hand over her face. “Look, I know I should have told you about Taser. I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t want you to feel bad over something you had no control over.”
“And yet, I do.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But Bliss, I would do it again. You didn’t see how much you were fading and how fast. I really thought I was going to lose you.”
“Okay fine, I forgive you, but you need to start staying out of my sex life from now on.”
“I will,” she hedges. “If you promise to power yourself up regularly. No more waiting until it’s almost too late.”
I think about it for a few moments. “Fine.” I stick out my pinkie finger. She locks it in hers and we pinkie swear. As good as a blood oath in our opinion.
“Besides, this festival is like one huge party for fae. So you’ll have so many people to pick from, you won’t need to use Taser again.”
I roll my eyes at her.
“You know, I’m really, really excited to perform, but part of me, the succubus part of me, is even more excited for all the fae dick we’re gonna get.”
“Hell yeah!” Dericia says. The back door swings closed. I hadn’t even heard it open. “Sorry, I was so eavesdropping, but I needed to make sure my sisters were okay. So this music festival is really just one big huge opportunity to get laid a ton?”
“According to Amy, yes.”
Amelia swings her arm around my neck and pulls me down so I’m in a headlock. “Dericia, did you overhear the part where I convinced Bliss to be our band manager again?”
“I did!”
“Well, I’m now thinking maybe she can be our bald band manager,” she says wickedly. I can hear her grinning.
“You wouldn’t dare!” I shriek at her. “Where would I wear my ribbons?”
Dericia lets out a chuckle. “You can always use my new bedazzler to glue them to your tits.”
“It can do that?” Amelia asks, letting me go, eyes wide at the possibilities.
“Oh yes,” Dericia responds, grinning.
I point my finger at both my sisters. “You stay away from my hair and my tits, got it?”